German Wikipedia shuts down for 24 hour protest

To save you a moment with some Google Translate: -----------------------------

THIS IS OUR LAST CHANCE. HELP US TO MODERNIZE COPYRIGHT IN EUROPE.

Dear visitor,

why can not you use wikipedia as usual? The authors of Wikipedia have decided to turn off Wikipedia today in protest against parts of the planned EU copyright reform. This law is due to be approved by the European Parliament on 26th March.

The proposed reform could severely restrict the free Internet. Even the smallest internet platforms would have to preemptively prevent copyright infringement of their users (Article 13 of the planned law), which in practice would only be possible by means of error-prone and abuse-prone upload filters. In addition, all web pages for short text extracts from press products would have to acquire licenses in order to comply with a new publisher right (Article 11). Both together could significantly affect the freedom of opinion, art and the press.

Although at least Wikipedia is explicitly exempt from Article 13 of the new Copyright Directive (but not Article 11), Free Knowledge will suffer even if Wikipedia remains an oasis in the filtered desert of the Internet.

Around five million people protest in a petition, 145 civil rights and human rights organizations, business and IT associations (including Bitkom, the German start-up association or the Chaos Computer Club), Internet against the reform in its current version Pioneers such as Tim Berners-Lee, journalists' associations and creatives.

We therefore request that you contact the Members of the European Parliament and inform them of your position on the planned reform.

Thank you.

Good on Wikimedia, they could use this opportunity to become a monopoly of free knowledge in Europe (since they are explicitly exempt), but they choose to fight for the right of those smaller websites.