Today the Court of Milan made public the decision in the criminal trial against four Google executives, charged of defamation and illegal personal data handling in relationship to the publication on the video sharing platform of a video containing act of bullyism against a person affected by the Down Syndrome.
Berlusconi aides blame Facebook, internet after attack
Milan, Italy
The attack against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is now expected to leave the hospital on Wednesday, may have a surprising result: stricter controls on freedom of speech on Facebook and Twitter in Italy.
There is a disturbing, arising trend in Italy, of former showpersons now MPs of Berlusconi’s party to propose free speech and anonimity regulation “to protect minors” (but fact shows that they’re mostly concerned of copyright.)
Between January and March 2009 Luca Barbareschi (actor) and Gabriella Carlucci (anchor woman), proposed two draft laws whose declared intent was to enforce copyright protection by shutting down civil liberties.
To be clear:
– Mr. Barbareschi’s Proposal is aimed at create a “single point of cultural control” by granting the Italian State backed royalty collecting agency, the role of exclusive gateway between artists and market. Furthermore, Mr. Barbareschi’s draft law contains so loose statements about ISPs liability that the Government is allowed to do
basically whatever he wants.
– More dangerous, if possible, is Mrs. Carlucci draft law that wants to ban anonymity from the Net, refusing even to consider intermediate forms such as “protected anonymity” (where the ISP act as trusted third party).
Mrs. Carlucci want to establish a committee under the Communication Authority with power of interpreting Internet-related law (in Italy, only magistrates and the Parliament is supposed to), receiving “confidential notice” of infringement, acting as Alternative Dispute Resolution provider, counseling magistrates about the enforcement of preemptive activities ruled under rule of evidence code, like searches and seizure, termporary jail rescrition etc.)
If approved, these (draft) laws will cause the concentration of power in goverrment’s hands, by weakening the possibility (or the right) to defend ourselves in Court.
Another step toward the ethical state?
A BBC report pushed Italy into international hype, for Mr. Maroni (Lega Nord) Ministry of Home Affairs, backed by a group of public prosecutors, started an aggressive campaign against Skype, claiming that organized crime uses this software to protect their illegal activities. This is a clear shift towards encryption’s outlawing – or limitation of its use – that will negatively affects both human rights and private sector activities.
A contribution to EDRI-GRAM, European Digital Rights Initiative’s newsletter.
The Bergamo Criminal Court overrules the seizure, but establishes a case law that is a violation of civil rights
An article by Giancarlo Livraghi, published on Gandalf.it, comments the Modica Court decision that indicted a website for being “clandestine”.
On October 10, 2007, EDRI issued a statement to express its serious concerns over a new Council of Europe Recommendation on ‘promoting freedom of expression and information in the new information and communications
environment’.
