Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2018-10-01/News and notes

EU Copyright Directive Article 13
On September 12, the European Parliament approved Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (Article 13), which had received much press back in June – including coverage in The Signpost. Even protest banners on the English Wikipedia displayed for European users, and full shutdowns occurred for some European language Wikipedias. Many comments on the proposed legislation concerned its effect on media largely dependent on many contributors, described as potentially chilling public discussion and putting up barriers to collaborative works by placing the burden for prevention of copyright infringement on the hosting party. The impact of the legislation has yet to be fully reckoned, but it did include carve-outs for non-profit uses intended for platforms such as Wikipedia. Still, we don't know what the downstream effect on commercial users and remixers of the CC-BY-SA content will be.

Brief notes
Additional contributors:
 * Former Arbitration Committee member was blocked by  over interactions with former Editor-in-Chief  at the Signpost comments page; the non-consultative unblock by  that followed led to a request for community review at the administrators' noticeboard – the verdict: "BAD BLOCK".
 * Spoken articles has released 857 of their 1360 available articles via Academic Torrents here. —&thinsp;
 * New administrators: The Signpost welcomes the English Wikipedia's newest administrator, with a 240/4/4 RfA closed 3 September (98% voting in favor of promotion).  has 98% in favor as we go to press, with closure imminent.
 * Six administrators were desysopped in September due to inactivity.