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

[Andrea Glorioso]

--
Dear Manon, dear all,

>>>>> "Manon" == Manon Ress <manon.ress@keionline.org> writes:

    > 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

I find the passage "[Italy] is a nation of octogenarian lawmakers
elected by 70-year-old pensioners. Everyone else is inconsequential"
absolutely great, and in fact I put it in my mail signature (hope this
is considered "fair use" or the equivalent everywhere in the world).

More on the point: this law *proposal* has caused quite a stir in
Italy - and, apparently, outside of it as well.

Some time ago, I would have simply said "most of our politicians don't
understand technology, and the Internet in particular".

Now, although I still subscribe to that view, I would say "most of our
politicians find it much more useful not to understand the Internet,
whether that's true or not".

The proposal is drafted in such an obscure and confusing language that
it is, in practice, a "passepartout" for the powers-that-be to silence
bloggers and other web-enabled forms of communication at their whim.

The first drafter of the law has recently proposed an amendment,
art. 7, which in English would sound along the lines of "Subjects that
access the Internet or that operate on the Internet in ways or with
products, such as personal sites or sites for collective usage, that
do not amount to an entrepreneurial organisation of labour".

I leave it to your fantasy and interpretation skills to understand
what the sentence actually means.

For people who have been studying Internet filtering and content
restriction in Italy - and, more generally, the very troubled
relationship of Italians, authorities and "common citizens", with the
concept of "freedom of expression" - this law proposal is not a
surprise.  It's only the latest, and by no means last, attempt to
impose centuries of a top-down vision of the world (whether that's the
Roman Empire, the Catholic Church or the Communist Party) over
attempts at a more  bottom-up social and cultural way of organising
our lives.

Sorry for the pseudo-political rant. Coming from Italy, I assume it
must be interesting. :)

P.S.: allow me one more OT advice. I would take everything that comes
      from Beppe Grillo's blog (quoted in the article and, if I
      understand correctly, believed to be one of the main targets of
      this law) with a  pinch of salt.  Although Grillo has many
      merits, he tends to swing violently from being an advocate for
      civil liberties to semi-xenophobic positions (some weeks ago he
      wrote in his blog that by not properly regulating immigration
      flows, Italian governments were guilty of having violated the
      "sacred borders of our homeland", or something along that line).

Ciao,

--
      Andrea Glorioso || http://people.digitalpolicy.it/sama/cv/
          M: +39 348 921 4379	     F: +39 051 930 31 133
  "Italy is a nation of octogenarian lawmakers elected by 70-year-old
     pensioners. Everyone else is unconsequential" (Bernhard Warner)
--
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