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Italy's First Steps in Censoring the Internet
mijio writes "It's not the first time that Italy discusses Internet censorship. The last year, after some guys appeared in a video punching and blaming a kid with Down syndrome, Minister of Education Fioroni brought in to trial two of Google Italy's managers and then proposed and strongly sustained his idea of censoring the Internet to protect the young. Now Ricardo Levi, the prime minister's right hand, is finally successful in promulgating his law on internet censorship. With the goal of "promoting and enriching the pluralism of information," the law rules that everyone involved in "editorial activity" must be subscribed to the "Registry of Operators of Communication" to be prosecutable in case of defamation, where "editorial product" is defined as "any product with purpose of information, education, divulgation, entertainment, aimed at publication, no matter the form it is realized in and the mean it is distributed with." When inquired about the effects of this rule for bloggers, Levi responded, "We have no interest in touching amatorial or personal sites, it would be not feasible". The Times speaks about this paradox as well."
Italy sucks!
Regulate that.
Someone hates these cans.
Riccardo Levi already stepped back: There was a misunderstanding, he said, we don't want to censor anything and actions will be taken to clarify the law on this point.
- It is uncostitutional: see here (link in Italian);
- It won't be proposed in this form due to the huge debate it has raised.
Please, Slashdot editors... do at least some basic research before posting stuff like this.A CC-licensed illustrated horror novel
...they congratulate because the torch is being carried on!
"registering all web site operators" scheme was proposed even in turkey, then abandoned. italians are even behind turkey when it comes to internet, apparently. "protecting the young" my butt. the only thing the young need protection from, are rotten spirited politicians like those.
Read radical news here
A German court recently forced one of the larger ISPs to block access to the Youporn site. Originally they (the ISP) tried it by blocking access to the IP-Address but since Youporn is hosted by GoDaddy, that blocked their customers' access to thousands of other sites as well. Now they have tried it at the DNS level.
The background to this is that a German porn site had to implement stringent controls to make sure the underage did not manage to sample their wares. Youporn did not bother with this and so had an unfair advantage. I read that Youporn is something like the 14th most popular site in Germany.
Several other organisations apparently have similar plans to shut down access to some site or other.
Mielipiteet omiani - Opinions personal, facts suspect.
Italy has a Minister of Finance.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
man, I totally remember the last year when that video came out - that kid was seriously blamed!
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after some guys appeared in a video punching and blaming a kid with Down syndrome
then proposed and strongly sustained his idea of censoring the Internet to protect the young.
Anyone else see a glaring contradiction here? If it was censored no one would have ever seen the video, in turn the kid would have never had his story shown, and in turn no one would have ever cared about him getting punched. The problem with censoring "graphical" content is it promotes exactly what the supporters of the censoring tell you it's trying to avoid, apathy.
If i had one dollar for every brain you dont have, i would have $1.
Surely if censorship of the internet is to "Protect Children" then why not simply ban children from using the internet? This proposal would be like seeing children in a pub, then making everyone drink water, so the kids dont get drunk. what i never understood is, why try to keep children "innocent" only to viscously corrupt them with the hideous reality of their pathetic lives at 18?
Come on Italy... are you that afraid of information?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
He didn't say "unconstitutional". He actually said "uncostitutional".
The cost of any internet censorship scheme would be astronomical so I would have to agree that it is uncostitutional.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge,
For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master"
I used to use this as my sig, I think I'll start doing it again. FYI, its a paraphrase of the last part of a statement in by Pravin Lal in Sid Meyer's Alpha Centuari.
Heres the full text:
"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last loose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
-- Commissioner Pravin Lal, "Librarian's Preface"
That won't happen easily. The privacy laws here are *very* strict, and often governments or other institutions have been slapped for violating them, publicly. To use personal data you have to state exactly why are you using them, and you can always have them removed. Even when there are cameras for crime prevention, usually there are notices and the data, unless there is a court order, must be destroyed within a small time frame (IIRC, 48 hours).
Italy has many faults, but the privacy law was not one of them.And about the Constitution, you are mistaken: although IMO it needs to change in other areas (it is still the product of a compromise done in 1948), it has a rather strong perception in the public and political view. That doesn't prevent people to try and mess up with it, of course, but such changes won't go too unnoticed.
A CC-licensed illustrated horror novel