[A2k] "Geriatric assault on Italy's bloggers"

[Manon Ress]

--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Thanks to M. Geist pointer on BNA's Internet Law News (ILN) - 10/25/2007
quote:
ITALY TO REQUIRE BLOGGERS TO REGISTER WITH GOVERNMENT
Italian lawmakers recently introducing a law that would
effectively require all bloggers, and even users of social
networks, to register with the state. If it is ratified, the
Ministry of Communications would decide who must register
with the state.
<http://tinyurl.com/yom9kt> [Times Online]
end of quote

I'm not sure about the assault on seniors (some of them are pretty
good on civil liberties) but this story is interesting maybe because
it's about Italy?
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/
article2732802.ece
Manon

 From Times Online
October 24, 2007
A geriatric assault on Italy's bloggers
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/
article2732802.ece

Italy's leaders barely understand word processors, let alone the web.
Now they've turned against the country's bloggers
Bernhard Warner

By G8 standards, Italy is a strange country. Put simply, it is a
nation of octogenarian lawmakers elected by 70-year-old pensioners.
Everyone else is inconsequential.

Romano Prodi, the Prime Minister, is a spry 68, knocking off 71-year-
old Silvio Berlusconi in last year=92s election. President Giorgio
Napolitano, 82, has six more years left on his term; his predecessor
was 86 when he called it quits. In the unlikely event that Italy
declares war, the decision will come from a head of state who was a
month shy of 20 when the Germans surrendered at the end of the Second
World War.

This creaky perspective is a necessary introduction to any discussion
about Italian politics with outsiders, I find. If the Italian
Government seems unable to adapt to the modern world, the explanation
is quite simple. Your country would operate like this too if your
grandparents were in charge.

Recently, Italian lawmakers once again took aim at modern life,
introducing an incredibly broad law that would effectively require
all bloggers, and even users of social networks, to register with the
state. Even a harmless blog about a favourite football squad or a
teenager grousing about life=92s unfairness would be subject to
government oversight, and even taxation =96 even if it=92s not a
commercial website.

Outside Italy, the legislation has generated sniggers from hardly
sympathetic industry observers. Boingboing cleverly reports Italy is
proposing a =93Ministry of Blogging.=94 Out-law.com plays it straighter,
calling the measure an =93anti-blogger=94 law.

I understand the lack of alarm in their tone. We=92ve been down this
road countless times. Panicky government officials, whether they are
in Harare, Beijing or Rome (yes, this is the second time it=92s been
proposed here), pronounce a brand new muzzle for the internet, and
clever netizens simply find a way around it. Even that agitated teen
probably has a foolproof way of masking his IP address. And besides,
it could easily be argued that a Blogger or Typepad blog is hosted on
a server well outside the bel paese, making a stupid law virtually
unenforceable. And finally this is Italy, a place where plumbers and
captains of industry alike are serial tax evaders. Don=92t sweat it,
amico. Enjoy the sunshine, vino rosso and tagliatelle.

Maybe it is because of all these obvious points that the draft law is
already going through some revisions. If it is ratified =96 and at the
moment it looks frighteningly likely =96 the Ministry of Communications
would decide who must register with the state.

This is hardly comforting. The intent of this draft law, as it was
written when it breezed through the Council of Ministers, would be to
gag bloggers who, for those in power, have become a particularly
problematic force of late. They are lead by the crusading (some say
=93populist=94) Beppe Grillo, a comedian-turned-activist-turned-blogger.
Grillo is one of the best-read commentators on Italian life, both in
and, thanks to his English-language blog, outside the country. He
agitates on behalf of the disenfranchised (code for: Italian youth),
campaigning for more transparent government and business.

Grillo believes the law is directed at him. Whether it is or not
doesn=92t really matter. The law=92s impact would turn all bloggers in
Italy into potential outlaws. This could be great for their traffic,
I realise, but hell on the business aspirations of an Italian web
start-up, not to mention any tech company that wants to sell its blog-
publishing software in Italy, or open a social network here. In
addition to driving out potential tech jobs, the stifling of free
speech also can have a dramatic chilling effect on all forms of free
expression, the arts and scholarship.

I am thinking specifically here of my students. I teach an
introductory journalism course at John Cabot University in Rome. My
students cover the city and university affairs in an online blog-
style newspaper called The Matthew Online. If this law is to pass, we
could not simply move the blog to an offshore server. We=92d be one of
the few who would be forced to abide by this crazy law.

Each semester, I=92d have to get 20 or so students registered with the
Ministry of Communications, a bureaucratic nightmare that would no
doubt take more than a semester to complete, and would turn a
generation of idealistic journalists away from the field forever,
perhaps into something more rewarding like the assault rifle lobby.
So, instead of teaching aspiring journalists about news reporting by
having them do some actual news reporting, we could spend three
months doing intro-writing exercises from a textbook.

And so I appeal to Italy=92s Communications Minister, Paolo Gentiloni,
a former journalist himself, and Ricardo Franco Levi, the lawmaker
who conceived of this wrong-headed bill. Is silencing the youth of
this country really the best solution to dealing with a few squeaky
wheels?


************************************************************************
***
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org,

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Il vaut mieux remuer une question, sans la d=E9cider, que la d=E9cider,
sans la remuer.
Pens=E9es, essais, maximes et correspondance de J. Joubert  p.249
http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/Visualiseur?Destination=3DGallica&O=3DNUMM-88671
Translation: It is better to debate a question without settling it
than to settle a question without debating it