Hello everyone,

This week, we re-published a blog post[1] in English that is a translation/adaptation of a post on the WMDE blog[2] on the technical pitfalls of automatic content filtering. As we have mentioned before[3], a regulatory mandate like Article 13 of the proposed EU Copyright Directive which would require similar filters to be applied to nearly all content uploaded online would only exacerbate the types of problems that our guest author experienced here.

We would also like to take this opportunity to update you on our efforts to promote a positive vision of copyright law in Europe in the weeks leading up to the EU Parliament’s September 12 vote on amendments to the Copyright Directive. We have been working closely with community leaders from across Europe to learn what materials the communities need from us and how we can unify our message across Europe.

As a result of these discussions, we have decided to focus many of our efforts on building a landing page about EU Copyright reform. This landing page will allow visitors to look up and contact their MEP via email, phone, or tweet with a pre-populated script. It will also serve as a central repository for information about the Wikimedia movement’s perspective on EU Copyright. This landing page is where all of our future blog posts on this topic, social media campaigns, and ideally the chapter activities should send traffic. We will send you an update as soon as that page goes live with the URL.

Other materials we are working on include: a statement from the Wikimedia Foundation on a positive vision for copyright; a series of flyers which can be printed and shared in-person or online by the community when you talk to others about EU Copyright; and some social media suggestions if you can help us raise awareness ahead of the vote.

We look forward to sharing an update about further ways to get involved in our policy activities soon! Meanwhile, if you have any questions please direct them at policy@wikimedia.org or directly at jgerlach@wikimedia.org and adavenport@wikimedia.org.

Best,

[1]https://wikimediafoundation.org/2018/08/27/can-beethoven-send-takedown-requests-a-first-hand-account-of-one-german-professors-experience-with-overly-broad-upload-filters/

[2] https://blog.wikimedia.de/2018/08/06/von-einem-der-auszog-das-fuerchten-zu-lernen/

[3] https://blog.wikimedia.org/2018/06/14/dont-force-platforms-to-replace-communities-with-algorithms/