Italy's First Steps in Censoring the Internet 90
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."
How's this for defamation? (Score:4, Insightful)
Regulate that.
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Regulate th#*@)*#@)# [NO CARRIER]
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Nonono, don't blame the country, blame the asshats who push for idiocy like this.
Try:
Fioroni, who only defend retards for the familial resemblance, molests dead sheep; Ricardo Levi takes sloppy seconds while snorting lines of coke off the penises of 8YO boys. And they both smell funny. And... Uhhh... I dunno, something about watching too many American mafia movies if I could find the right phrasing to make it insulting but not just a racist joke, and some sort of insult
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-- Tom Wolfe
step back (Score:5, Informative)
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The scheme is:
1. Speak about a very restrictive law that is being written.
2. Wait for the reaction of the media. If they criticize you, step back and say you were "misunderstood".
3. Change the criticized aspects of the law, introduce a bit of freedom. This is how you wanted the law to be from the beginning. Everyone should understand that this is a reasonable compromise between what is needed and what is possible to do. Now the media won't care about it anymor
Dupe, and disinformed to say the least. (Score:5, Informative)
- It is uncostitutional: see here [lulu.com] (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.Re:Dupe, and disinformed to say the least. (Score:5, Informative)
You misunderstood. (Score:4, Funny)
The cost of any internet censorship scheme would be astronomical so I would have to agree that it is uncostitutional.
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Hey! (Score:2)
If you are going to bag on him do it because he just doesn't get the joke.
futile - [fyoot-l, fyoo-tahyl]
-adjective
1. trifling; frivolous; unimportant.
2. responding to anonymous cowards.
Re:Dupe, and disinformed to say the least. (Score:5, Informative)
From the FAQ [slashdot.org]:
How do you verify the accuracy of Slashdot stories?
We don't. You do.
The answer was last modified 7 years ago. People have been complaining about this sort of thing for as long as I've been on the site. It's not going to change; they don't care. They are far more focussed on getting stories up quickly than on checking for factual correctness.
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failed laws pass camouflaged after a year or so (Score:2)
It is uncostitutional
Constitution can change as well, and even if it is violated no one will notice or bother.
It won't be proposed in this form due to the huge debate it has raised.
I bet that the government will pass the law in another form: As a data protection law which will say that everyone who keeps a file with personal information will have to register with the government (or an authority - which is the same thing in my opinion).
Then if you create a blog and accept comments, and your blog software asks for the email address of the people posting the comments, your blog's database may
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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 hav
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I have to say that I don't know the internal political landscape in Italy or the Italians's perception of politics. If Italians are aware of their constitution that's a good thing (in other countries people don't know what their constitution says). I have visited Italy but I didn't stay long enough to learn much about it (I loved it though so I will surely visit it again at first opportunity!).
In Soviet Russia... (Score:2, Funny)
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Idiots (Score:3, Insightful)
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It's meant to enforce trust for those who wish to use it, and it's mandatory to become eligible for those public financial aid we have for press.
This is happening in Germany as well (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:This is happening in Germany as well (Score:5, Informative)
Interesting to note that this was more about economic competition than "Save the Children!"
I've been living and working in Germany for about a month now and this economy doesn't really like "competition" or anything like that. Anyone selling you anything (car, TV, apartment) first asks you how much you are willing to spend; you have to pay all kinds of outrageous extra fees for really no service (it's not uncommon for the realtor/property manager who finds you a place to demand ~3000 euro for their 1 day of work); and businesses collude to keep prices up (nobody is "allowed" to sell for lower prices).
So it's not suprising to me that that this was an issue of halting "competition" rather than protecting young minds.
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I've been living and working in Germany for about a month now
Isn't it a bit early to make that sort of general statements about Germany?
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Eventually I'll get used to the absolute lack of motivation around here, and then I won't be so frustrated.
Censorhip should be made universally illegal (Score:2)
Government asking ISPs to block access to certain sites (any sites) should be made illegal worldwide. ISPs lose money and undergo additional expenses incurred by government censors: They cannot provide true unlimited access to the Internet and have to spend time and money in blocking sites. Government censors interfere with their business and if they make the life of ISP entrepreneurs very difficult then we will stop seeing more small new ISPs being founded because of the costs and risks involved and Int
practically very difficult... impossible? no (Score:2)
It could happen if people provided a financial and political incentive for abolishing all censorship laws worldwide. If a huge number of citizens worldwide agreed not to buy anything from nations that have censorship laws (eg the communist China PRC), voted for pro-freespeech politicians, and asked international organisations such as the EU and UN to formally recognise any censorship as equal to slavery, then it could happen. The important thing would be to make it happen with democratic consensus and via
In other news... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Here I am changing my undies every day like a sucker.
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Just imagine.... (Score:1)
In the last year (Score:3, Funny)
anyone else see a contradiction? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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In the real world the bully lives for his chance to play before an audience. The Internet gives him a far bigger stage.
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They propose this in response to a couple of idiots posting a video, and then they say they won't actually go after "personal" postings.
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Amatorial? (Score:1)
Italians! That is the only thing they have in mind.
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No, I won't translate the last word for you, and you should not google for it without a good pop up stopper
Re:Sure is lots of censorship going on in Europe (Score:5, Insightful)
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A lot of the time, there isn't one.
Welcome to the real world.
Red line (Score:2)
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I notice your
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So I presume that you will agree that a huge amount of religious works, including the bible, should be banned, as they offend me by contradicting and thus denying a well-established historical fact, the fact of biological evolution. No? Then perhaps banning holocaust denial is also a bad idea.
Again, my point in writing h
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Like in every other thing in our life where's the red line?
Well, there's an obvious line between images made only with consenting adults, and images that involve non-consenting participants.
For the most part, that's not even a "line", more like a big gaping division - in the same w
They have it backwards. (Score:4, Interesting)
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Kids can also be very resourceful when you tell them not todo something
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-Lasse Hillerøe Petersen
Whew, I was worried for a minute! (Score:2)
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"Is that like an ATM machine web site ?
Yes, you use your Syrian Express Card "Can't Come Back"
Someone punches a retard and Italy goes Nazi? (Score:3, Funny)
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However this proposal has been retired by the minister, so no censorship will be applied at all.
Greetings from Italy!
Old sig (Score:4, Insightful)
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"
Ha ha ha ha that's really funny ... (Score:2)
it's been so long! (Score:1)
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