Michele Failla
I work at Wikimedia Europe (WMEU) as Senior EU Law & Policy Advisor. I have a Law & Economics background and I also hold a Master in European Political Studies. My job is to ensure that Wikimedia projects and the Wikimedia movement are preserved when a new piece of legislation is passed. We do our best to ensure that lawmakers widely understand the Wikimedia model and respect its functioning and values. In this sense, I closely work with the Foundation's public policy team and the European national chapters, including Italy, France, Germany.
I am passionate about protection of fundamental rights - such as freedom of expression, privacy & access to information -, media law & policy, EU law, democratic theories & e-democracy, new technologies, cooperative projects, degrowth & the commons. In my free time, I sometimes contribute to Wikipedia.
Sessions
The Wikimedia Foundation’s participation in legal cases during 2024 involved cases both as a defendant and as an active effort through impact litigation (i.e., lawsuits that aim to bring legal change in the public interest). In this session we will discuss several of these impact litigation cases, and how that work has been reinforced through dynamic collaboration within the Movement. Join Amanda Jardine (Lead Counsel for Strategic Litigation, WMF), Ivan Martínez (President, Wikimedia México) and Michele Failla (Senior Legal and Political Advisor, Wikimedia Europe) as they discuss cases involving intellectual property, privacy, freedom of expression and intermediary liability. Learn more about how local chapters can work with WMF to protect these rights globally through legal advocacy.
Public broadcasters produce high-quality educational content, yet much of it remains inaccessible due to restrictive licensing. Wiki Loves Broadcast (WLB) aims to change this by working with public broadcasters to release content under free licenses like CC BY-SA 4.0. This workshop will introduce participants to WLB’s mission and provide hands-on experience in integrating freely licensed public broadcasting content into Wikipedia. Attendees will learn how to find relevant videos, understand the criteria for embedding them, and actively contribute by adding videos to articles. Through collaborative editing, participants will enhance Wikipedia’s multimedia content while exploring the impact of audiovisual material in knowledge sharing. By the end of the session, attendees will have not only learned about WLB but will have directly contributed to making high-quality educational videos accessible to a global audience.