European Court of Human Rights has decided to expedite case on online censorship brought against the government of Turkey for blocking Wikipedia

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has decided to expedite a case brought by the Wikimedia Foundation against the government of Turkey for blocking Wikipedia in the country. The case contends that the longstanding ban amounts to impermissible censorship and limits peoples’ fundamental rights to free expression and access to knowledge. The ban was….

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Avrupa İnsan Hakları Mahkemesi, Vikipedi Engelinden Ötürü Türk hükûmetine karşı açılan Çevrimiçi Sansür Davasını Hızlandırmaya Karar Verdi.

Avrupa İnsan Hakları Mahkemesi (AİHM), Wikimedia Vakfı’nın ülkedeki Vikipedi’ye erişim engelinden ötürü Türk hükûmetine karşı açtığı bir davayı hızlandırmaya karar verdi. Davada, uzun zamandır devam eden yasağın kabul edilemez bir sansür boyutuna ulaştığı ve insanların ifade özgürlüğü ve bilgiye erişim temel haklarının sınırlandığı ileri sürülmekte. Erişim engeli Türk hükümeti tarafından Nisan 2017’de yürürlüğe kondu. Vikipedi’yi….

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Why we must all support policy that keeps the internet open and accessible

This week, the Wikimedia Foundation was invited to provide opening remarks for the third annual Global Conference of the Internet Jurisdiction and Policy Network in Berlin, Germany. This conference represents a place for civil society, platforms, elected representatives, policymakers, and other stakeholders to come together and discuss how we can manage tensions between competing national….

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Wikimedia Foundation urges Chinese authorities to lift block of Wikipedia in China

The Wikimedia Foundation has determined that Wikipedia is no longer accessible in the People’s Republic of China—impacting more than 1.3 billion readers, students, professionals, researchers, and more who can no longer access this resource or share their knowledge and achievements with the world. We have not received notice or any indication as to why this….

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Four things European legislators can do to not break the internet (again)

The European Union (EU) Commission’s proposal for a Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online runs the risk of repeating many of the mistakes written into the copyright directive, envisioning technological solutions to a complex problem that could bring significant damage to user rights. The proposal includes a number of prescriptive rules that….

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European Parliament limits internet freedom in controversial copyright vote

Today, the European Parliament voted 348–274 to pass a new copyright directive that includes problematic rules that will harm free knowledge. They did so after years of discussions, revisions, and more recently street protests. We believe that this is a disappointing outcome, the impacts of which will certainly be felt for years to come. As….

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Four Wikipedias to ‘black out’ over EU Copyright Directive

Update, 25 March: The Italian, Galician, Asturian, and Catalan Wikipedias have blacked themselves out today to protest the EU Copyright Directive. Other language versions of Wikipedia have chosen to show site banners above their content. Wikipedia’s volunteer editing communities make decisions like this independently. More on that, and our unaltered original post, is below. •….

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We do not support the EU Copyright Directive in its current form. Here’s why you shouldn’t either.

After a long legislative process, the final text of the EU Copyright Directive was cemented last week as trilogue negotiations between the EU Commision, Parliament, and Council came to a close. Now that the final text has been made available, with only a yes-no vote in Parliament standing in the way of its implementation, Wikimedia….

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The European Court of Human Rights affirmed that hyperlinking is protected free expression. Here’s why we’re applauding.

Two years ago, we wrote about Magyar Jeti Zrt v. Hungary, a case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which dealt with legal liability for hyperlinking—a practice on which the open internet relies and which many internet users engage in a on a daily basis. Last week, the ECHR affirmed an important principle:….

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We’re endorsing a proposed copyright treaty that adds educational and research exceptions. Here’s why.

This may come as a surprise, but copyrighted works often cannot be used in educational and research materials. For example:  students in France, Italy, Luxembourg and Romania cannot legally quote an entire artwork in a digital presentation. In Denmark, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom a teacher may not send an email to….

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