<nettime> Italian folies

[Beppe Caravita <bcaravita {AT} public.iunet.it>]

Quoted from Zeropaid.com:
"The Italian cultural minister, Giuliano Urbani, has proposed a new law 
that has already been approved by the Italian parliament, and is waiting 
for Senate approval. The use of any means, including P2P networks, to 
exchange audiovisual material or software will become a felony 
punishable by up to 6 years in prison and the confiscation of all the 
hardware and media. This will be the most repressive law of its kind in 
the world, and is what happens when the Prime Miniter, Silvio 
Berlusconi, who controls practically all the media in the country, also 
has stakes in movie production (Medusa Film) and DVD rental outlets 
(Blockbuster Italia)."


This awfully-conceived law also introduces a not-well-defined 
"electronic fingerprint" for any file (music, video, software) which is 
"legitimately" (according to italian government) transmitted via 
internet. Any file transmission (upload or download) without such a 
fingerprint could be punsihed with jail. Italy would be the only country 
using such a fingerprint - think of the catastrofically repressive 
implications concerning the distribution and download of free software, 
open-source software, or self-produced music. If this law is finally 
approved, I will have to sadly remove my own mp3 pieces from my website 
until things will get clearer or the law will be amended (hopefully) - 
because it is clear that this law would lead to absurd consequences for 
italian internet users and for communication freedom between Italy and 
the rest of the world.


We are fighting:  
http://web.fiorellocortiana.it/html/modules/newbb/viewforum.php?forum=4

We need support!


write vto te newspapers!


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