Because of the EU Copyright Directive : A day without Wikipedia

Per hour is obtained the German-language page of the Online encyclopedia Wikipedia is usually more than 1.3 million Times, but this Thursday the requests of the users are going to go base into the Void. "To Protest against the EU copyright reform, the German Wikipedia is the 21st century. March for 24 hours switched off," according to Wikimedia, as the operator of offer at the top of the Wikipedia site. Worldwide, Wikipedia is the fifth most-visited web sites in Germany in seventh place. For Saturday Europe-wide Protest demonstrations against the new EU Directive is planned.

"For the first Time, the German-speaking Community of authors is to perform a complete shutdown," reads a blog post the Wikimedia. Several other language versions may follow this example, or the Banner on the main page. The German-language Wikipedia refers to as a basis for decision-making on a picture of the mood of the Community. A choice of two options: The complete shutdown of the website and the circuit of a protest banner. In the content of voting, 139 members of the Community supported the shutdown for 24 hours and 28 for the protest banner. "We want creative professionals to be remunerated for their work. We also want high-quality journalism is still possible. What we don't want to, is a departure into a non-free Internet," reads the justification of the step

concern for Free Knowledge in a filtered Internet

The EU copyright Directive in March finally, the EU has to vote to Parliament, before the Copyright Directive will then be transferred within a period of two years, in national law, include two particularly controversial articles. Clause eleven stipulates the introduction of a European ancillary copyright for press publishers, article 13 technical measures to prevent copyright infringements. "Even the smallest Internet platforms would have to bind the copyright violations of their users, and User preventive, what Filter would be, in practice, only by means of error - and abuse-prone Upload feasible," - said in a Text to be published on Thursday on the Wikipedia page. "In addition, all sites would need to acquire for short text excerpts from media articles licences, to a new publisher to comply with the law," it said. "Both together could compromise the freedom of expression, art, and freedom of the press." For the Wikipedia, the exception rules of article 13 shall apply, but the Community feared that "the Free Know will suffer, if Wikipedia remains an oasis in the filtered desert of the Internet.“