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Italy Wants to Restrict Blogs

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the now-wiat-a-minute-here dept.

nx writes "Italy wants to restrict bloggers' rights by forcing everyone to register their blogs, pay a tax and have a journalist as a "responsible director". This law is clearly designed to curb critical voices and free speech, although it has yet to be approved by parliament."

45 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. In other news by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    [Every country in the world] wants to restrict entrepreneurs' rights by forcing everyone to register their businesses, pay taxes on undistributed and phantom profits, and get a license for all activities that compete with politically-powerful groups. The law is clearly designed to curb competition with government monopolies and free association, although it has yet to be approved by its legislature.

    I just wish y'all would worry about economic regulation *before* it starts getting applied to World of Warcraft and blogging.

    --
    Apology to Ubuntu forum.
    1. Re:In other news by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 3, Insightful

      just wish y'all would worry about economic regulation *before* it starts getting applied to World of Warcraft and blogging. Nobody cares about economic regulation. For the average American, as long there's beer in the fridge, two new SUV's in the driveway, a white picket fence, bowling on Friday night and Monday Night Football, no one will ever complain, no matter how far they go. It doesn't even matter who wins the presidency, really, at this point.
      --
      My blog
    2. Re:In other news by Elemenope · · Score: 2, Insightful

      For the average American, as long there's beer in the fridge, two new SUV's in the driveway, a white picket fence, bowling on Friday night and Monday Night Football, no one will ever complain...

      I've heard this meme quite a bit, and while I agree that bread and circuses play a significant role in pacifying the public, I think it is quite overselling the point by implying that the middle class standard (2.2 kids, SUV, owned home) is representative of many peoples' condition. On the contrary, the middle class is vanishing, such that of all the things you listed, perhaps only the beer and the TV with football are still affordable for many, many Americans. The SUV and the white picket fence are far out of reach.

      --
      All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
    3. Re:In other news by oliderid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      IMHO it is classic amongst European politicians. But this example is clearly the worst of all.

      They write down law proposition for the Internet without using it.
      They don't know how it works, all they know about it is what they read in the newspaper or what they heard in their pompeous conferences. They don't use emails, staffs check their mailbox for them..And print the relevant ones. They don't type, they 've got an assistant for that. A computer is a black box for them, like black magic. So they get scared, they need a way to connect this new tool to the old bureaucratic society that they understand.

      And when you mix ignorance with the european left tendency to regulate/classify anything crawling on the surface of this planet. You end up with this monstruosity.

    4. Re:In other news by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The SUV and the white picket fence are far out of reach.

      The former is demonstrably false, just take a drive anywhere in town. Either you are yourself driving an SUV, or the idiot woman driver who hits you is.

      As for the second, that's only because people are unwilling to move further than Eagle's Creek, Deer Run, Craggy Highlands, or any number of other 2nd rate housing developments in the suburbs. I think you'll find that there are quite a few places in the US that offer the white picket fence at a reasonable price. And considering the ability to telecommute for those of us in the IT business, the only real reason to stay where the prices are high is vanity and the desire to live there.

    5. Re:In other news by Firethorn · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As for the second, that's only because people are unwilling to move further than Eagle's Creek, Deer Run, Craggy Highlands, or any number of other 2nd rate housing developments in the suburbs. I think you'll find that there are quite a few places in the US that offer the white picket fence at a reasonable price. And considering the ability to telecommute for those of us in the IT business, the only real reason to stay where the prices are high is vanity and the desire to live there.

      Besides work, there's also the concern of services. Living in a small town(1 bar/restraunt, no gas station), I batch my trips to somewhere larger for shopping. For example, there's no good chinese restraunt in at least four hours drive. Schools are pretty good, but a good distance away. Going to the store is a fairly major expidition, not something jumping on a bicycle for something forgotten for dinner is an option(did that as a kid quite a bit, two grocery stores within 3 miles).

      On the other hand, my house cost less than half a year's income for me, and it's quiet with no crime.

      Life is tradeoffs.

      Picket fence living is not ideal for everyone - some prefer not having to worry about a yard, like not having to drive to eat out, etc...

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    6. Re:In other news by bhmit1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sadly, in any democracy where money and votes result in power, entrepreneurs will always lose. We are a minority of the vote, so all the wealth redistribution fans will put people in power that take money from anybody but them. And when it comes to money, the shoe-string garage operations just don't compare to the mega-corporations and their government sponsored monopolies.

      This is why we are seeing more and more laws passed that tax hotel guests, reckless drivers, smokers, the self employed, and um-teen other small groups to fund something like (to use Virginia as an example) our traffic problems when the gas tax is forbidden from being touched, not indexed to inflation, and unchanged since I was born. The more we tax the minorities, the more the minorities will go elsewhere, and eventually they will come for those in the majority because there's no one else left.

      I'd much rather see taxes targeted at people that use the given service. Every person needs to fund the police, property owners need to fund the fire departments, families with children need to fund the schools, drivers with cars or people buying gas need to fund our roads, etc. These kinds of taxes should encourage people to live a more efficient lifestyle and for those that want to pay more to live better, that's their choice. Today, we have a system setup to encourage the poor to have more children to collect a bigger welfare check, I'm paying for their school, and some smoker is paying for the roads that I drive on. The disconnect means that roads are overcrowded and under maintained, schools use trailers to handle the overflow, and every politician promises to do something to cut down on the high property taxes.

    7. Re:In other news by Kadin2048 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The SUV and the white picket fence are far out of reach. If you want to stay out of debt, sure. But just looking around, there are a whole lot of people with multiple 6000-lb road monsters and McMansions, who have no business owning either, thanks to easy mortgages.

      "Middle class" used to mean a small home and a single car, or a modest apartment if you lived in a city -- plus entertainment/disposable income that's a fraction of what people spend today (as a fraction of their income, but probably in absolute terms when you adjust for inflation, too). Today, people don't consider themselves successful unless they live in a large house, have two or three cars, boatloads of entertainment expenses, eat prepared food constantly, and go on jet-setting vacations: none of that was ever part of "middle class" life a few generations ago.

      One of the reasons the 'middle class' has disappeared is because expectations have become unrealistically high as a result of shady credit practices. A person living debt-free and within their means on a moderate income can still be quite comfortable in many parts of the country, but they won't live as well -- to an outside observer, anyway -- as their neighbors who are racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars of mortgage and consumer debt. That creates a lot of social pressure to do the same, particularly since it forces class definitions in a community to creep upwards.
      --
      "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
    8. Re:In other news by LuSiDe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Its all about control, and that goal isn't limited to Europeans. Not at all. Think of Putin. Or Bush..

      --
      WE DON'T NEED NO BLOG CONTROL.
  2. Coming soon to a government near you... by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I expect blogs to be taxed and licensed almost everywhere, eventually. We can't have people saying things critical of the governm....errr...I mean, we can't have people saying anything offensive. Will someone please think of the children????

    --
    My blog
  3. Blog by mwvdlee · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So, what is the definition of a "blog" anyway?

    --
    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    1. Re:Blog by Marcion · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Exactly, just remove the word blog and call it a website.

      --
      My little Linux and tech blog
    2. Re:Blog by aicrules · · Score: 5, Funny

      A Blog can be identified via the following characteristics:

      1. There is very little traffic to the site other than the bots posting link back comments still trying to fool google.
      2. There is a flurry of postings near the creation date of the site waning down to many once a month with the six of the last 10 postings being the message "No time to post today, too much work. Will try to catch up later."
      3. The posts with content contain many unsubstatiated statements proclaimed as fact all discussed in an exasperated matter in a hardly subtle attempt to garner emotional support from people they don't know.
      4. There are very few comments to postings other than self-posted comments providing clarification or an update.

      I'm sure there are other identifying characteristics, but these are the ones that you can count on...

  4. The more things change, by Black+Parrot · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I remember a news story from way back when I was a kid, of some group getting raided in the USSR for possessing an unregistered mimeograph machine.

    As this and the current Burma censorware article show, nothing threatens the powerful like a free exchange of ideas.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  5. what's the standard for by ameoba · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Does Italy have some sort of registration/licensing of journalists or periodicals? Are their already laws in place that force professional, mainstream journalists to be "responsible"?

    It might go against my USian belief in free speech, but I'd have a hard time arguing against this law if its merely placing blogs & websites under the same scrutiny as other publications. OTOH, I see enforcement of the law as a colossal failure waiting to happen.

    --
    my sig's at the bottom of the page.
    1. Re:what's the standard for by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It might go against my USian belief in free speech, but I'd have a hard time arguing against this law if its merely placing blogs & websites under the same scrutiny as other publications.

      Actually, that's what a lot of people find objectionable about these types of laws: that stringent regulation of "bad people" might actually apply to them too! (Sort of a variant of "a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested".)

      I see this kind of thing all the time:

      ***

      "I think it's HORRIBLE how corporations EXPLOIT all these tax loopholes to avoid paying their FAIR SHARE!"
      "To consistently enforce tax law, we will have to monitor MMORPGs like World of Warcraft so as to insure income earned there is taxed."
      "WHAT???? That's RIDICULOUS!"

      ***

      "I think there should be STRINGENT regulations on businesses to make sure they don't DISCRIMINATE."
      "Excuse me sir, your site, 'Craig's List' has acted in contravention of Fair Housing law so we're suing you."
      "Er, what? I mean, those laws are for bad people, not me."

      ***

      common internet discussion:

      "Corporations are OBVIOUSLY inefficient. Look how easy it is to make something and sell it cheaper."
      "Yeah, but you didn't obey these regulations and pay these taxes."
      "Well ... those shouldn't exist!"
      "And if they didn't, the corporation could sell for less."
      "No, because they're inefficient."
      *falls out of chair*

      --
      Apology to Ubuntu forum.
  6. No need to worry. by ZwJGR · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Like all laws in Italy which are unpopular and/or unenforceable they will be totally ignored by law-enforcement and people alike...

    Although I'd be surprised if this law makes it through parliament without being heavily diluted, or at all...

    --
    There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face - Ben Williams
    1. Re:No need to worry. by cryfreedomlove · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I am worried. Yes, the law is silly and unenforceable. However, having lots of unenforced and silly laws on the books makes everyone a criminal and subject to capricious arrest anytime anywhere. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, maybe even George Bush love laws like this because they can employ them at a moment's notice against their perceived threats.

    2. Re:No need to worry. by Phil-14 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Like all laws in Italy which are unpopular and/or unenforceable they will be totally ignored by law-enforcement and people alike...


      And that's just the sort of laws the bureaucrats like, laws everyone's guilty of violating and which they can selectively enforce.

      --
      (currently testing something about signatures here)
  7. One day soon by davegravy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    PirateBay will have a new torrent section called "thoughts", where one can download all the latest illegal ideas people have uploaded.

  8. The EU may come to the rescue by andyh3930 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Surely the EU will overrule this law with regard to Human Rights Legislation. UK national law has been deemed illegal on a number of occasions by the EU, so I'd expect the same with this.

    Also how are they going to stop it. It'll be difficult to prove as the bloggers can use proxies and the like and how are the authorities going to prosecute 1000's of people.

  9. even non-commercial. by sdkramer · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm in favor of at least taxing that guy's blog. Interesting approach to using boldface he has.

    On a somewhat serious note this is regardless of whether the blog is intended to be profitable. Yikes!

    --
    "I wish to God these calculations would have been made by steam." -Charles Babbage
  10. Can we at least pretend to be unbiased? by dws90 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This law is clearly designed to curb critical voices and free speech, although it has yet to be approved by parliament."

    That's one interpretation, yes, and in fact a good one. Nevertheless, it shouldn't be there. Linking to a blogger with strong opinions about the issue is one thing, but could we at least avoid biased summaries? The summaries are supposed to be about news, not opinion. If I wanted one-sided views, I'd read Digg.

    Give us the story, facts-only. Let us decide if it's an assault on free speech. Allowing the reader to come to that conclusion on their own is far more powerful and effective.

    I'm guessing links to articles with different opinions would be too much to ask for.

  11. Il Duce by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't be paranoid. You'll still be able to blog about how great it is that the trains are running on time.

  12. For sufficiently small values of "Italy" by Sockatume · · Score: 3, Informative

    The headline in this rather implies that Italy as a nation is behind moves to limit blogs in general, when it would be more accurate to say that certain parts of the Italian government approve of moves to limit blogs in their country. Can we be a bit less gung-ho with the article titles, please?

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  13. Article totally misleading.... get the facts by dan211a · · Score: 5, Informative

    The post is very inaccurate. Editors, please check the facts before posting sensationalistic headlines.

    There is a law being discussed in the Italian parliament which intends to set the rules for online publications, and define their responsibilities.
    The goal is to recognize and treat professional online news sites in the same way as traditional newspapers, where there is an editor ultimately responsible and accountable for the information
    published. This is not unlike press laws in most western countries: if, for instance, the New York Times publishes unfounded corruption allegations against a politician, its editor is ultimately responsible for those allegations, and the politician could sue him for defamation.

    There was some initial concern in the blogging world that this law could also apply to bloggers, but this concern was already cleared by the undersecretary to the Cabinet, Ricardo Franco Levi, which is the main curator of the text of the proposed law. He clearly stated that the new law would only apply to professional journalists, and that it would absolutely not apply to bloggers of any kind.

    More information (in italian): http://www.corriere.it/politica/07_ottobre_23/levi_legge_editoria_no_bavaglio_ai_blog.shtml

    1. Re:Article totally misleading.... get the facts by blueiron · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Marcos Eliziario wrote:
      "And if a law needs clarification"

      It's not a law, it's a proposal. There is a huge difference. It still has to go through several steps.

    2. Re:Article totally misleading.... get the facts by Shihar · · Score: 3, Interesting

      , for instance, the New York Times publishes unfounded corruption allegations against a politician, its editor is ultimately responsible for those allegations, and the politician could sue him for defamation. No, not in the US. The US has some of the weakest defamation laws in the world, and they become even weaker when talking about a public figure. In order for an editor to get sued in your example he would have to knowingly and blatantly lie AND do it for the purpose of causing the politician in question harm. If he can point to even a scrap of evidence to show that he could have thought what he was printing was true, he is off free. Even then, the fact that the politician is a public figure means that the burden of proof is so high, he basically has to be caught on camera laughing melavolantly while declaring out loud that his false and horrible lies will finally bring down politician X. You think I am joking, but I am not. It is nearly impossible to get sued in the US for libel and or defamation against a public figure.

      Now, the editor might very well get skewed for writing false alligations, but he will get skewered by his boss and adveritsers, not by the law. He might very well find himself out on the street, but the law will have no part in it.

      There are a lot of things to not love about many American laws. US free speech law (or lack there off) is not one of them. When it comes to free speech, the US kicks ass and takes names like few others in the world. You will find yourself very hard pressed to find a nation with more liberal free speech laws.
  14. Not the truth by AlbertoP · · Score: 5, Informative

    The statement about blogs is not true, and the source of the information is questionable. As you can read on this article of Corriere della Sera, http://www.corriere.it/politica/07_ottobre_23/levi_legge_editoria_no_bavaglio_ai_blog.shtml (sorry, it's in Italian), where Mr Levi has been interviewed, the law you're discussing about refers to the editorial market, which means newspaper, magazines, books. As a consequence it only affects professional operators who produce them. Personal sites and blogs are excluded from these categories. The law only wants to extend to Internet newspapers the existing rules for the editorial market. Regards

    1. Re:Not the truth by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 2, Funny

      Thanks for the clarification. However, what sort of site would Slashdot be if not for the sensationalist headlines and trumped up accusations?

      Why, they might even be required to pay a tax in Italy!

    2. Re:Not the truth by dintech · · Score: 3, Funny

      what sort of site would Slashdot be if not for the sensationalist headlines and trumped up accusations?

      Something like this

    3. Re:Not the truth by scosta · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, the original post was basically vaporware, and "questionable" in origin in the sense that who has written it (http://www.beppegrillo.it/) has a personal interest to make things worse then they are.

      But it is true that the law text was extremely generic, and so prone to every kind of interpretation, pessimistic or optimistic.

      The basic problem is that italian laws are often very badly written (in the sense that are basically and fundamentally unclear). And in the confusion, everyone can say everything...

    4. Re:Not the truth by oliderid · · Score: 4, Informative

      What is a professional operator?

      Example 1:
      I make 100 Euro per month with Google ads on my blog. It means that my blog or web site is "profitable". I guess like anywhere in Europe, you can keep it "as an secondary source of revenue" without any company registration until it reaches a max. turnover.
      Should I register my web site to this administration?

      Example 2:
      I have a popular video game news web site: It makes a relatively serious turnover, let's say 50.000 Euro. Enough for me to live, not enough to hire a professional journalist.
      I guess this time I will be forced to register my web site to this administration and to hire in some way a profesional journalist.

      In this case it hurts "very badly" entrepreneuship. As usual European European internet small/young entrepreneurs will be "forced" to stay undercover (using various techniques like a paypal account, offshore address etc.) until they reach a decent turnover and when they can face the high burden of running an "official" activity in this highly bureaucratic
      continent.

      The only ones who won't be hurt is the establishment or those who have moved to a more business friendly country (one click away)

    5. Re:Not the truth by Kidbro · · Score: 2, Funny

      Did you have to do that? I clicked the link and.... recognized the stories.

      *sigh*

      --
      May we live long and die out
  15. Not the white picket fence part... by SIIHP · · Score: 3, Informative

    "The SUV and the white picket fence are far out of reach."

    US home ownership has been increasing for years and continues to do so.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeownership_in_the_United_States#Historical

    --
    I only go to buffets for the unlimited soft serve.
    1. Re:Not the white picket fence part... by DaedalusHKX · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hmmm, "essential services" ? I don't seem to recall the fire fighters in my local jurisdiction being paid out of taxes. In fact, the local pool for the firefighter is all volunteers and donations, taxes go to pay cops to give speeding tickets.

      Local population "education" isn't worth the cash and never was or will be.

      Warren Buffet is smart enough to have plenty of physical wealth. What he uses to make a profit isn't what he uses for physical assets. In the end, what you cannot get during a "bank panic" is what you "don't have".

      I'm sure I'm a kook to you. And a good thing it is, too.

      --
      " What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
  16. Apparently, the law wil be changed by Baumi · · Score: 3, Informative
    BoingBoing covered the story, too, and the comments on it are rather encouraging.

    Especially this one:

    For now, I can report that this proposal is apparently not going anywhere: Paolo Gentiloni, one of the ministers involved in drafting the law, admitted of "not having thoroughly read the proposal" because he thought that "it was not going to alter the status quo". He is now declaring that this law will certainly be changed in order to keep blogs out of the picture, and
    that he's sure that Mr. Ricardo Franco Levi is the first who will be willing to take action to change it.
  17. Actually it is: here's the text by orzetto · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The source of the information is not just Beppe Grillo's blog, since that redirects to this article by La Repubblica, the main Italian newspaper, and the text of the proposed law itself.

    In the text of the proposed law, I read: (Art. 2:1)

    Per prodotto editoriale si intende qualsiasi prodotto contraddistinto da finalità di informazione, di formazione, di divulgazione, di intrattenimento, che sia destinato alla pubblicazione, quali che siano la forma nella quale esso è realizzato e il mezzo con il quale esso viene diffuso.

    This means, in brief, that any product with purpose of information, formation, diffusion and entertainment meant for publication is actually targeted by the law, with no exception for no-profit sites. You only need to be a provider of information to be required to register your activity (Art. 6:1). Mr. AlbertoP, you are talking out of your ass, and Mr. Levi in his interview is lying (or he's incompetent, or both).

    Now, some background for you Americans about what is happening over in Italy: there is mounting dissatisfaction with the current political class, which is seen as highly corrupt and mostly busy with covering its ass. I voted for the current government (Prodi, centre-left), and there is no way I am going over to the other side (which would be Berlusconi's), but I am myself very dissatisfied with the current bipartisan climate, and it seems I am in good company. Last year the parliament passed a general pardon to solve an overpopulation problem in jails (you read right: too many criminals, let's put them back on the streets!) which caused a spike in crime rate; the actual reason for a pardon instead of building more jails was that the pardon covered also crimes committed by certain politicians. This, the fact that the government is more busy with infighting that with maintaining the promises given in their 280-page program presented at the last election, the personality of jackass-politician Clemente Mastella (who attended a mafioso's wedding and is now fittingly minister of Justice) and many other things caused a general discontent.

    Enter Beppe Grillo. A well-known comedian with a history of getting banned and censored for jokes on politicians since the '80s, he started a blog a few years ago and, in the current climate, decided to organise a "Fuck-off day" ("Vaffanculo day", V-Day as in V for Vendetta), a series of national rallies all over Italy and abroad. 4-letter words aside, the idea was to gather signatures for some popular-initiative law proposals (no felons can run for office, two-term limit in parliament, and so on). About a million people participated, and 300,000 signatures were gathered (even on an Italian scale, this is quite a success).

    Politicians got scared and started to attack Grillo almost in unison; this law is an effort to silence Grillo and anybody who would take his place.

    For the good news: infrastructure minister Antonio Di Pietro (yes, I voted for his party and I'm damn happy I did) said that if this law proposal is not retired he's torpedoing the government and forcing new elections. Nothing straightens out politicians like the threat to lose their post... Grazie Tonino!

    --
    Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
    1. Re:Actually it is: here's the text by lbbros · · Score: 2, Informative

      Aside all the political siding here (which adds nothing to the discussion), you should notice that some articles of the law contradict the Constitution (the Italian Constitution, that is), therefore this law won't make it anywhere.
      Also, a minor correction: the main Italian newspaper is "Il Corriere della Sera", not "La Repubblica" (important, but not the main).
      The rest of the post is off-topic, although debatable, so I'm not going to comment on it.

      --
      A CC-licensed illustrated horror novel
    2. Re:Actually it is: here's the text by orzetto · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Aside all the political siding here (which adds nothing to the discussion), you should notice that some articles of the law contradict the Constitution (the Italian Constitution, that is), therefore this law won't make it anywhere.

      I wish I could believe that. The Constitution explicitly forbids financing private schools in article 33, yet private schools are financed using some creative accountability, such as calculating the savings to public school when a kid goes to private school. Anyway, which article of the Constitution would this law violate? Article 21 says nothing about being free from a requirement of registration. This is the same system applied to newspapers, it's not illegal today. The point is not to prohibit blogs, which would never get through the Constitutional Court, the point is to make it difficult to open one, or to make it a liability if you do open one without having gone through the bureaucracy, or to open a loophole so that blogs may be closed for some administrative reason.

      Also, a minor correction: the main Italian newspaper is "Il Corriere della Sera", not "La Repubblica" (important, but not the main).

      Hmm, I think I recall reading that Repubblica passed Corriere some months ago. The Wikipedia has only data from 2005, unfortunately.

      --
      Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
    3. Re:Actually it is: here's the text by orzetto · · Score: 2, Informative

      Art.5 of the new proposal violates art.3 comma 2, art.9, art.21 and art.41 of the Constitution.

      Article 5 of the proposal defines "publishing activity" as production, distribution and collecting advertisement revenue. Did you mean article 6, the one that makes it compulsory for anyone with a "publishing activity" to register?

      As for the Constitution articles, let's flesh them out one by one:

      • Article 3:2 says It is the duty of the Republic to remove those obstacles of an economic and social nature which, really limiting the freedom and equality of citizens, impede the full development of the human person and the effective participation of all workers in the political, economic and social organization of the country. This has not much to do with publishing. If it were to be as widely interpreted as you seem to want it to be, then they should abolish train and public-transport fares (hey, I'm in favor of that), completely cover all costs of political activity and so on.
      • Article 9 says The Republic promotes the development of culture and scientific and technical research. It safeguards landscape and the historical and artistic heritage of the Nation. This is about universities and higher educations. It does not even state that research is free. Writing on a website has little to do with this article.
      • Article 21 says All have the right to express freely their own thought by word, in writing and by all other means of communication. The press cannot be subjected to authorization or censorship. [...] Printed publications, shows and other displays contrary to morality are forbidden. The law establishes appropriate means for preventing and suppressing all violations. It seems to me that this article's last two sentences were written by some fascist, and are already now something that should be abolished. Aside that, compulsory registration does not eliminate your freedom of speech, it only makes it difficult to actually use it. Anyone familiar with Italian bureaucracy will know that registering is going to take time, effort, probably money, a decent amount of patience, and of course approving the registration may take forever: in the law proposal, there are no maximum terms after which registration must be granted.
      • Article 41 says Private economic initiative is free. [...] This has, again, nothing to do with what we were discussing. We were discussing personal websites, not commercial ones. This article is not about freedom of speech: indeed, it is listed under "Title III: Economic relations", not "Title I: Civil Rights".

      So, again, I do not see what is directly unconstitutional about this law proposal. Of course, my opinion is that this means there is a problem in the Constitution, not that the proposal is fine. Feel free to elaborate.

      --
      Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
    4. Re:Actually it is: here's the text by lbbros · · Score: 2, Informative

      There's a good writeup here (link in Italian), which describes well why it is uncostitutional (the author is a lawyer, as well).

      --
      A CC-licensed illustrated horror novel
  18. NO: in fact, it was going to be the truth!!! by feanor981 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    AlbertoP and the other one above citing corriere.it article are forgetting how facts actually evolved:

    1) Draft law has been approved October, 12th

    2) First on-line concernments exploded October, 19th

    3) Asked about that, Mr Levi first replied: "It's not up to the government to establish that. It'll be for the Communications Authority to indicate with regulations, which people and which companies will have to register. And the regulations will arrive only after the law has been discussed and approved by the Lower House." - in other words "I don't care too much about what could happen to web sites and blogs. Eventually, someone other will fix (later) what i'm breaking (now)."

    4) After many politicians expressed serious concern about the draft, and literally menaced to leave the government coalition (see: Antonio di Pietro's Blog - October, 20th) Mr Levi suddenly "changed opinion", releasing the interview AlbertoP refers to, in date October 23rd!!


    So, the REAL STORY is:

    Mr Levi has been caught with hands in the jam and immediately changed opinion. Wouldn't have been so, we in Italy were going to be mass-censored - exactly as posted by nx!

    Cheers, Feanor.
  19. Incomplete thought :) by DaedalusHKX · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Last point.... my properties are generally far enough that short of a nuclear blast , I do not, and would not require ANY of their so called "essential" services, and even IN the case of said blast, I wager I can survive longer hiding in my basement and washing my veggies than living in a concentration camp or "safety zone" as they call it.

    There is honestly NOTHING that government does that could not be BETTER handled by a local business or a local coalition. Monolithic government as an entity, instead of a PACT between NEIGHBORS is nothing short of criminal... it drains resources, accomplishes little short of its own propagation, and ends up harming everyone involved, with the exception of those who cannot enjoy life without controlling others, who invariably end up at the helm of said monolithic government entity.

    gotta go, lunch awaits

    --
    " What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
    1. Re:Incomplete thought :) by Lord+Ender · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There is honestly NOTHING that government does that could not be BETTER handled by a local business or a local coalition.
      There are some nobel prize winning economists who disagree with you. You're falling in to a trap called "reductionism," where we want simple answers, so we oversimplify to the point of being wrong.

      Also, you DO use the public education system. If it weren't for public education, the US wouldn't even HAVE the economy that enables you to earn the money to buy the computer you are typing on. If it weren't for public education, your income would likely decrease by an amount FAR GREATER than what is currently spent on taxes.

      In other words, your rant is just factually incorrect in multiple ways.
      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.