7 ms·

Italy looking to kill user-generated content sites

42 points by CoryOndrejka 17y ago

maurycy 17y ago
Let's ban this, let's outlaw that. I like it how govs have no basic clue about this Internet thing.
- axod 17y ago
  Controlling the masses communication has been something governments have always tried to do, they always will.
  - eagleal 17y ago
    Similar to what's going on in China. And on Italian News TVs there was NOT a word about this decree.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- marciovm123 17y ago
  you mean it's not a series of tubes???
davidw 17y ago
I kind of wonder if Google might get fed up and ditch their Italian office. Recently I also read this attack piece in the Corriere della Sera, which is usually a reasonable paper: http://www.corriere.it/economia/10_gennaio_28/mucchetti_4de4be8a-0be8-11df-bc70-00144f02aabe.shtml http://www.corriere.it/economia/10_gennaio_28/mucchetti_4de4... Italian only, but basically the guy has it in for Google and the fact that they get paid in Ireland, in Europe, and thus avoid some of the fun and exciting Italian taxes and regulations, and thinks they should be subject to a number of inane rules that the local companies cooked up to split up the publishing market amongst themselves.
pwhelan 17y ago
Good luck with that Italian government.
- electromagnetic 17y ago
  Yeah, especially as online-publishing is a freedom of speech issue and unless Berlusconi rescinds Italy's membership in the European Union, he'd have to be able to prove that essentially banning access to free-speech online isn't a violation of freedom of speech European Court of Human Rights. Any judgement by the court is wholly binding on the member states and legally has to be complied with or they can ultimately be forced out of the EU, but would likely be subject to sanctions and receive no 'rebate' from the taxes their citizens pay to the EU. Being forced out of the EU would mean all their citizens working in the EU, outside of Italy, could potentially lose employment immediately due to not having work visas. Every Italian citizen living in the EU would have 6-months to return to Italy, and by how most immigration policies work they would be unable to apply for a work visa or even citizenship within their country of occupation. The exact same would happen to any EU citizen living in Italy, which could potentially be devastating for the economy in Italy.
jacquesm 17y ago
It's simple, really. Italy profits from being connected to the internet more than it costs them, so they'll do the right thing eventually. This goes for any country that wants to control / regulate the internet that gets a substantial portion of their telecommunications via the net. If Djibouti or Upper-Volta would decide to legalize stuff like this they could get away with it because the public outcry would be relatively small, if they do it in Italy then whichever political party was the one to make that decision will find themselves without any power at the next elections. I would take this with a substantial grain of salt. Less than a week ago Italy's prime minister suggested that Israel should join the EU: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=20492 http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=... think of it as publicly funded entertainment.
padmanabhan01 17y ago
This is as atrocious as banning public speaking.
mixmax 17y ago
This move is obviously motivated by politics and business. Berlusconi basically runs Italy like a corporation that he owns, and since he controls 90% of Italian media his interests don't align with sites such as youtube, Reddit, Digg, etc. that pose a threat to his business. What he's doing is what any (heartless..) savvy businessman would do: Cut out the competition. Of course this is absolutely terrible for Italian democracy and free speech. It's nothing personal - only business.
- LucaDuval 17y ago
  It is also personal. Berlusconi has a huge, and still growing, number of legal problems. He successfully hides them on the media he owns or controls (6 tv channels out of 7). The few newspapers that are not aligned to his policy are read by an handful of people. The only way truthful news about his misbehavior reach the Italian people are social network and similar. So it makes sense to shut them up.
- eagleal 17y ago
  And this could be the Berlusconi response to such claim: "The left wing it's trying to ruin the country by make non-sense claims". If you watch the Italian television, you can see that he appends that sentence on every response.[Disclaimer: I'm not right/center/left/you-name-it winged]
protomyth 17y ago
Does Italy acting like an idiot affect startups in the rest of the EU?
- jacquesm 17y ago
  In the EU Italy is not exactly first on the list of 'markets' that you think of when starting out. First off, the UK & Germany, then France, Spain, Scandinavia, Benelux, then Italy, and Greece. Switzerland usually gets pulled in alongside Germany and France with the portion of the country that only speaks Italian to come along when Italy goes in, Austria usually around the time that Germany is done. That's simply a consequence of the amount of business done online and the size of the populations of those countries. Former eastblock countries usually follow last, but there is a shift happening there, they definitely figure higher in the consciousness of start-ups today than they did even 3 years ago.
  - protomyth 17y ago
    I was wondering if a non-Italy EU startup could be caused problems by the Italian Gov?
    - sharpn 17y ago
      The short answer is no - unless they depend on Italian cusomers (or bank via Italy). The longer answer depends on Italy's relative sway with the EU versus your 'home' nation & the significance of what you're doing, but is a qualified 'no'.
- access_denied 17y ago
  Italy is strong in fashion and has a big market for motorcycles and mobile phones. That's it.

42 points by CoryOndrejka 17y ago

maurycy 17y ago

Let's ban this, let's outlaw that. I like it how govs have no basic clue about this Internet thing.

axod 17y ago
Controlling the masses communication has been something governments have always tried to do, they always will.
- eagleal 17y ago
  Similar to what's going on in China. And on Italian News TVs there was NOT a word about this decree.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
marciovm123 17y ago
you mean it's not a series of tubes???

davidw 17y ago

I kind of wonder if Google might get fed up and ditch their Italian office. Recently I also read this attack piece in the Corriere della Sera, which is usually a reasonable paper: http://www.corriere.it/economia/10_gennaio_28/mucchetti_4de4be8a-0be8-11df-bc70-00144f02aabe.shtml http://www.corriere.it/economia/10_gennaio_28/mucchetti_4de4... Italian only, but basically the guy has it in for Google and the fact that they get paid in Ireland, in Europe, and thus avoid some of the fun and exciting Italian taxes and regulations, and thinks they should be subject to a number of inane rules that the local companies cooked up to split up the publishing market amongst themselves.

pwhelan 17y ago

Good luck with that Italian government.

electromagnetic 17y ago
Yeah, especially as online-publishing is a freedom of speech issue and unless Berlusconi rescinds Italy's membership in the European Union, he'd have to be able to prove that essentially banning access to free-speech online isn't a violation of freedom of speech European Court of Human Rights. Any judgement by the court is wholly binding on the member states and legally has to be complied with or they can ultimately be forced out of the EU, but would likely be subject to sanctions and receive no 'rebate' from the taxes their citizens pay to the EU. Being forced out of the EU would mean all their citizens working in the EU, outside of Italy, could potentially lose employment immediately due to not having work visas. Every Italian citizen living in the EU would have 6-months to return to Italy, and by how most immigration policies work they would be unable to apply for a work visa or even citizenship within their country of occupation. The exact same would happen to any EU citizen living in Italy, which could potentially be devastating for the economy in Italy.

jacquesm 17y ago

It's simple, really. Italy profits from being connected to the internet more than it costs them, so they'll do the right thing eventually. This goes for any country that wants to control / regulate the internet that gets a substantial portion of their telecommunications via the net. If Djibouti or Upper-Volta would decide to legalize stuff like this they could get away with it because the public outcry would be relatively small, if they do it in Italy then whichever political party was the one to make that decision will find themselves without any power at the next elections. I would take this with a substantial grain of salt. Less than a week ago Italy's prime minister suggested that Israel should join the EU: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=20492 http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=... think of it as publicly funded entertainment.

padmanabhan01 17y ago

This is as atrocious as banning public speaking.

mixmax 17y ago

This move is obviously motivated by politics and business. Berlusconi basically runs Italy like a corporation that he owns, and since he controls 90% of Italian media his interests don't align with sites such as youtube, Reddit, Digg, etc. that pose a threat to his business. What he's doing is what any (heartless..) savvy businessman would do: Cut out the competition. Of course this is absolutely terrible for Italian democracy and free speech. It's nothing personal - only business.

LucaDuval 17y ago
It is also personal. Berlusconi has a huge, and still growing, number of legal problems. He successfully hides them on the media he owns or controls (6 tv channels out of 7). The few newspapers that are not aligned to his policy are read by an handful of people. The only way truthful news about his misbehavior reach the Italian people are social network and similar. So it makes sense to shut them up.
eagleal 17y ago
And this could be the Berlusconi response to such claim: "The left wing it's trying to ruin the country by make non-sense claims". If you watch the Italian television, you can see that he appends that sentence on every response.[Disclaimer: I'm not right/center/left/you-name-it winged]

protomyth 17y ago

Does Italy acting like an idiot affect startups in the rest of the EU?

jacquesm 17y ago
In the EU Italy is not exactly first on the list of 'markets' that you think of when starting out. First off, the UK & Germany, then France, Spain, Scandinavia, Benelux, then Italy, and Greece. Switzerland usually gets pulled in alongside Germany and France with the portion of the country that only speaks Italian to come along when Italy goes in, Austria usually around the time that Germany is done. That's simply a consequence of the amount of business done online and the size of the populations of those countries. Former eastblock countries usually follow last, but there is a shift happening there, they definitely figure higher in the consciousness of start-ups today than they did even 3 years ago.
- protomyth 17y ago
  I was wondering if a non-Italy EU startup could be caused problems by the Italian Gov?
  - sharpn 17y ago
    The short answer is no - unless they depend on Italian cusomers (or bank via Italy). The longer answer depends on Italy's relative sway with the EU versus your 'home' nation & the significance of what you're doing, but is a qualified 'no'.
access_denied 17y ago
Italy is strong in fashion and has a big market for motorcycles and mobile phones. That's it.