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Italy Approves Jail for P2P Users

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-bully-for-them dept.

funkdid writes "Italy has made transferring content via the Internet without the permission of the copyright holder a criminal offence.Those found guilty of the unauthorised distribution of copyright material now face a fine of between 154 and 1032 ($185-1240), a jail sentence of between six months and three years, the confiscation of their hardware and software, and the revelation of their misdeeds in Italy's two national newspapers, La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera."

7 of 533 comments (clear)

  1. Email is copyrighted... by WigginX · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can I still forward emails to Italy?

  2. Italian bootlegs by Vic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's interesting that this would happen in Italy. From my understanding (I'm not an expert in this), Italy has had very relaxed laws about bootlegged music, especially live recordings. That's why so many concert CDs come from Italy.

    Anyone care to comment on this or clear it up?

    Cheers,
    Vic

  3. GPL violations? by j-beda · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Since the GPL is a copyright lisence - does this mean that if somone violated the GPL in Italy it could get them thrown in jail?

    And people complain that they are afraid of the viral nature of the GPL - this would really scare them!

  4. Welcome Italy! by kannibal_klown · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Finally!!!

    Don't get me wrong, I think this is complete BS and wrong on soooooo many levels...

    But it's nice to know that America isn't the biggest (or the only) a$$-hat when it comes to p2p. Up until now, we've looked draconian in our handling of such matters compared to other parts of the world.

    This makes what the RIAA is doing look like a slap on the wrist. Hopefully they don't get any ideas.

  5. Re:RIAA Attacks Single Mom by Greedo · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Here's a quote from that article (emphasis added):
    The record companies follow the songs when they're downloaded onto computers, and they also note how many copyrighted songs are stored on that computer's hard drive memory, because those songs are often "uploaded" or shared with others through the file-sharing service.
    How, exactly does one "follow the songs" once they're downloaded? The only thing that comes to mind is that the RIAA must be offering the files for download. Then, when little Cassandra downloads the song, the RIAA has her IP, and can browse what she has on offer.

    IANAL, but isn't that a form of entrapment? And isn't that ... uh, like ... bad? Especially if you are entrapping a minor?

    --
    Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
  6. Re:Publishing v. private communications by Fulkkari · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The article states earlier:

    The Italian parliament yesterday voted in favour of imposing jail sentences of up to three years on anyone caught uploading or downloading unauthorised copyright material to and from the Net.

    In my eyes it looks like you get to prison by using Google cache or similar. Am I wrong?

    Besides, how do you know if the copyrightholder have allowed you to download the content? Hell. It would even be dangerous to download "terms of service", because it is copyrighted.

    This thing is not going to work out very well.

    --
    I demand the Cone of Silence!
  7. Since this is Italy... by Simonetta · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Since this is Italy, I assume this law only really applies to downloading materials that come from companies that Berlusconi owns a controlling interest in.

    Which, since this is Italy, is practically everything.

    Speaking on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of Italian P2P users, what are Italian jails like?
    Are they sex torture rape factories like American prisons? Are they government profit centers like Mexican prisons (where you have to buy your own food)? If you download really big files and get the death penality, do they charge your family 50 cents like the Chinese do? Are they just 'work the zeks until they drop' slave-labor camps like the Soviet Gulags?

    Come on, Italian politicians, you passed a law to put tens of thousands of your own young people in prison for activities that few civilized people consider to be a crime. Now that you have your 'law', what are you going to do with it?