Italy to Require Anyone Who Uploads Video to the Internet to Obtain Government Authorization
January 17th, 2010Via: The Industry Standard:
New rules to be introduced by government decree will require people who upload videos onto the Internet to obtain authorization from the Communications Ministry similar to that required by television broadcasters, drastically reducing freedom to communicate over the Web, opposition lawmakers have warned.
The decree is ostensibly an enactment of a European Union (EU) directive on product placement and is due to go into effect at the end of January after being subjected to a nonbinding appraisal by parliament.
On Thursday opposition lawmakers held a press conference in parliament to denounce the new rules — which require government authorization for the uploading of videos, give individuals who claim to have been defamed a right of reply and prevent the replay of copyright material — as a threat to freedom of expression.
“The decree subjects the transmission of images on the Web to rules typical of television and requires prior ministerial authorization, with an incredible limitation on the way the Internet currently functions,” opposition Democratic Party lawmaker Paolo Gentiloni told the press conference.
Article 4 of the decree specifies that the dissemination over the Internet “of moving pictures, whether or not accompanied by sound,” requires ministerial authorization. Critics say it will therefore apply to the Web sites of newspapers, to IPTV and to mobile TV, obliging them to take on the same status as television broadcasters.
“Italy joins the club of the censors, together with China, Iran and North Korea,” said Gentiloni’s party colleague Vincenzo Vita.
It interests me how some nations seem to have a default setting, like a strange attractor revealing itself as their story unfolds in history.
“Article 4 of the decree specifies that the dissemination over the Internet “of moving pictures, whether or not accompanied by sound,” requires ministerial authorization”
I’m no lawyer, but wouldn’t that include things like e.g. animated advertisement and downloadable video games?
The question here is “who owns the ‘commons’ of the internet?”. Governments have already established themselves as owners of the public airwaves for other forms of communication, so it’s only natural they want to secure authority over the internet as well…meaning, as in this case, you need to pay for a license to ‘use’ that space.
It’s a power grab, and it’s doubtful at this point in history that The People are going to ultimately win it.
doubtful, that they can hold that position in the long run.
Just imagine someone builds a gnu-radio-BBS that covers citywide with a mesh network. the cells reach some 100, 200m and could work full-duplex like wlan does with 1, 2Mbit. That would be totally enough to share thoughts and some music.
Who need HD, when the content is crap?
Important: I do not think about rural areas or global coverage. A megacity has enough inhabitants and density to make something like this viable.