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Italian Wikipedia May Shut Down Due To New Legislation
An anonymous reader writes "Proposed legislation under debate in Italy has Wikipedia warning of a shutdown for the Italian version of the site. They say the law would create 'a requirement to all websites to publish, within 48 hours of the request and without any comment, a correction of any content that the applicant deems detrimental to his/her image.' They further explain. 'Unfortunately, the law does not require an evaluation of the claim by an impartial third judge — the opinion of the person allegedly injured is all that is required, in order to impose such correction to any website. Hence, anyone who feels offended by any content published on a blog, an online newspaper and, most likely, even on Wikipedia can directly request the removal of such contents and its permanent replacement with a "corrected" version, aimed to contradict and disprove the allegedly harmful contents, regardless of the truthfulness of the information deemed as offensive, and its sources.'"
There, I think I just got Slashdot shut down...
...allowed in the European Union? It really compromises the image of the whole entity that they have no problem with this absurd level of corruption. This is obviously another censorship/media control ploy by Berlusconi, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was specifically designed to hurt Wikipedia.
Great Intellect...
It's Italy, so there's a very good chance that Berlusconi's media empire will have some sort of immunity or loophole available to it.
To draw the attention to the problem. Trust me, noone cares about the rights untill it comes back to them and bites them in the back soft spot. When most of italians are unable to browse wikipedia and see a disclaimer that due to their laws it is impossible to operate in that country — then it's more likely that this law will be scrapped.
Seriously - don't host in Italy, and who cares?
Perhaps Italians who have to live in Italy, just might be subject to Italian no matter where they hosts and are probably strongly represented in the group of people who administrate Italian Wikipedia??
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
Italy has been electing Berlusconi since 1994. Losing the Italian Wikipedia doesn't even register as a speedbump in the ongoing disaster that Italians refuse to take personal responsibility for.
IIRC the UK just sent somebody to prison for trolling
To suggest it was simply for trolling is somewhat understating the matter. While I agree that he shouldn't have gone to prison, we are talking about an extended and targetted campaign of obscene harrassment against individuals who had done nothing at all to the perpetrator. 18 weeks in prison (of which he will only serve 9 unless he reoffends after leaving) seems justifiable. OTOH, as the offence is simply a symptom of the guy's Asperger's syndrome, he probably shouldn't have been punished for it at all.
It is a long-held belief that freedom of speech extends only as far as it does not cause harm to others, which is acknowledged both in the US and here in Europe. Harrassment causes harm, and therefore should not be permitted under the banner of freedom of speech. In the US, this is the relevant statute he could have been prosecuted under, and would have been eligible for a much longer prison sentence had he been convicted.
Holocaust denial, OTOH, is an entirely different matter, and I can see no justification at all in laws that prevent it.
In 2006 Italians were already sick and tired of Berlusconi. The left-wing coalition were already planning a glorious victory, the problem is that it's a coalition formed basically by all politicians screwed by Berlusconi that inclusdes from catholics to communists, people who have in common little more than thair hatred for Berlusconi. Even before the election they were fighting for the best offices in the coming government scaring many people. Eventually they won anyway but they spent two years just bickering among them because they all had different agendas. The highest achievement of that left-wing government was trying to solve prisons overcrowding releasing thousands of petty criminals, too bad a lot of them got back in jail for new crimes within a few months. After two years the left-wing coalition had to give up because they were incapable of governing and a new anticipated election was held. People were so disgusted that they voted Berlusconi again just because he's the devil you know! Italy is still carrying the legacy of the Cold War, when vote was ideological, the country was a battleground for various terrorist groups and corruption was tollerated because there were worse things to think about. It's taking too long for Italy and particularly for Italian politicans to understand that today a lot of people can switch their votes to and fro the two coalitions and both of them seem to still showing how inadequate they are to govern a modern country.
Ciao
Can please USA invade us, and get complete control of our nation? We are not capable of doing that ourselves, it seems.. i'm serious! Part of the package will be free access to colosseum and pizza 4 everyone..
Having the symbol of the Eagle everywhere will remind you of old times too...