Italy Wants to Restrict Blogs 242
nx writes "Italy wants to restrict bloggers' rights by forcing everyone to register their blogs, pay a tax and have a journalist as a "responsible director". This law is clearly designed to curb critical voices and free speech, although it has yet to be approved by parliament."
In other news (Score:2, Insightful)
I just wish y'all would worry about economic regulation *before* it starts getting applied to World of Warcraft and blogging.
Coming soon to a government near you... (Score:4, Insightful)
Blog (Score:3, Insightful)
what's the standard for (Score:3, Insightful)
It might go against my USian belief in free speech, but I'd have a hard time arguing against this law if its merely placing blogs & websites under the same scrutiny as other publications. OTOH, I see enforcement of the law as a colossal failure waiting to happen.
No need to worry. (Score:3, Insightful)
Although I'd be surprised if this law makes it through parliament without being heavily diluted, or at all...
Re:In other news (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No need to worry. (Score:4, Insightful)
Can we at least pretend to be unbiased? (Score:3, Insightful)
This law is clearly designed to curb critical voices and free speech, although it has yet to be approved by parliament."
That's one interpretation, yes, and in fact a good one. Nevertheless, it shouldn't be there. Linking to a blogger with strong opinions about the issue is one thing, but could we at least avoid biased summaries? The summaries are supposed to be about news, not opinion. If I wanted one-sided views, I'd read Digg.
Give us the story, facts-only. Let us decide if it's an assault on free speech. Allowing the reader to come to that conclusion on their own is far more powerful and effective.
I'm guessing links to articles with different opinions would be too much to ask for.
USSR? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:In other news (Score:3, Insightful)
For the average American, as long there's beer in the fridge, two new SUV's in the driveway, a white picket fence, bowling on Friday night and Monday Night Football, no one will ever complain...
I've heard this meme quite a bit, and while I agree that bread and circuses play a significant role in pacifying the public, I think it is quite overselling the point by implying that the middle class standard (2.2 kids, SUV, owned home) is representative of many peoples' condition. On the contrary, the middle class is vanishing, such that of all the things you listed, perhaps only the beer and the TV with football are still affordable for many, many Americans. The SUV and the white picket fence are far out of reach.
Re:In other news (Score:3, Insightful)
They write down law proposition for the Internet without using it.
They don't know how it works, all they know about it is what they read in the newspaper or what they heard in their pompeous conferences. They don't use emails, staffs check their mailbox for them..And print the relevant ones. They don't type, they 've got an assistant for that. A computer is a black box for them, like black magic. So they get scared, they need a way to connect this new tool to the old bureaucratic society that they understand.
And when you mix ignorance with the european left tendency to regulate/classify anything crawling on the surface of this planet. You end up with this monstruosity.
Re:In other news (Score:2, Insightful)
The former is demonstrably false, just take a drive anywhere in town. Either you are yourself driving an SUV, or the idiot woman driver who hits you is.
As for the second, that's only because people are unwilling to move further than Eagle's Creek, Deer Run, Craggy Highlands, or any number of other 2nd rate housing developments in the suburbs. I think you'll find that there are quite a few places in the US that offer the white picket fence at a reasonable price. And considering the ability to telecommute for those of us in the IT business, the only real reason to stay where the prices are high is vanity and the desire to live there.
Re:what's the standard for (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, that's what a lot of people find objectionable about these types of laws: that stringent regulation of "bad people" might actually apply to them too! (Sort of a variant of "a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested".)
I see this kind of thing all the time:
***
"I think it's HORRIBLE how corporations EXPLOIT all these tax loopholes to avoid paying their FAIR SHARE!"
"To consistently enforce tax law, we will have to monitor MMORPGs like World of Warcraft so as to insure income earned there is taxed."
"WHAT???? That's RIDICULOUS!"
***
"I think there should be STRINGENT regulations on businesses to make sure they don't DISCRIMINATE."
"Excuse me sir, your site, 'Craig's List' has acted in contravention of Fair Housing law so we're suing you."
"Er, what? I mean, those laws are for bad people, not me."
***
common internet discussion:
"Corporations are OBVIOUSLY inefficient. Look how easy it is to make something and sell it cheaper."
"Yeah, but you didn't obey these regulations and pay these taxes."
"Well
"And if they didn't, the corporation could sell for less."
"No, because they're inefficient."
*falls out of chair*
Unlikely to pass (Score:1, Insightful)
or pass at all, most of the ministers already have dissociated
themselves from the law and various parties on the parliament
will not vote the current form.
Pretty dumb, this demonstrates that the governement don't read
their own laws, since the proposal was voted unanimously.
Also, this is not the first time: the preceding government tried
the same trick (registration of all news related site with very
vague terms) but resulted in the same outraged response and the
law being trashed.
Re:Article totally misleading.... get the facts (Score:1, Insightful)
it not need to be 'explained' it need to be corrected to be more
explicit.
Fortunately this seems the route that will be taken, corrections
to avoid any misinterpretations.
Re:No need to worry. (Score:3, Insightful)
And that's just the sort of laws the bureaucrats like, laws everyone's guilty of violating and which they can selectively enforce.
Re:In other news (Score:3, Insightful)
Besides work, there's also the concern of services. Living in a small town(1 bar/restraunt, no gas station), I batch my trips to somewhere larger for shopping. For example, there's no good chinese restraunt in at least four hours drive. Schools are pretty good, but a good distance away. Going to the store is a fairly major expidition, not something jumping on a bicycle for something forgotten for dinner is an option(did that as a kid quite a bit, two grocery stores within 3 miles).
On the other hand, my house cost less than half a year's income for me, and it's quiet with no crime.
Life is tradeoffs.
Picket fence living is not ideal for everyone - some prefer not having to worry about a yard, like not having to drive to eat out, etc...
Re:In other news (Score:3, Insightful)
This is why we are seeing more and more laws passed that tax hotel guests, reckless drivers, smokers, the self employed, and um-teen other small groups to fund something like (to use Virginia as an example) our traffic problems when the gas tax is forbidden from being touched, not indexed to inflation, and unchanged since I was born. The more we tax the minorities, the more the minorities will go elsewhere, and eventually they will come for those in the majority because there's no one else left.
I'd much rather see taxes targeted at people that use the given service. Every person needs to fund the police, property owners need to fund the fire departments, families with children need to fund the schools, drivers with cars or people buying gas need to fund our roads, etc. These kinds of taxes should encourage people to live a more efficient lifestyle and for those that want to pay more to live better, that's their choice. Today, we have a system setup to encourage the poor to have more children to collect a bigger welfare check, I'm paying for their school, and some smoker is paying for the roads that I drive on. The disconnect means that roads are overcrowded and under maintained, schools use trailers to handle the overflow, and every politician promises to do something to cut down on the high property taxes.
Wouldn't you know (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Article totally misleading.... get the facts (Score:2, Insightful)
"And if a law needs clarification"
It's not a law, it's a proposal. There is a huge difference. It still has to go through several steps.
Re:Not the white picket fence part... (Score:3, Insightful)
Local population "education" isn't worth the cash and never was or will be.
Warren Buffet is smart enough to have plenty of physical wealth. What he uses to make a profit isn't what he uses for physical assets. In the end, what you cannot get during a "bank panic" is what you "don't have".
I'm sure I'm a kook to you. And a good thing it is, too.
NO: in fact, it was going to be the truth!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
AlbertoP and the other one above citing corriere.it article are forgetting how facts actually evolved:
1) Draft law has been approved October, 12th
2) First on-line concernments exploded October, 19th
3) Asked about that, Mr Levi first replied: "It's not up to the government to establish that. It'll be for the Communications Authority to indicate with regulations, which people and which companies will have to register. And the regulations will arrive only after the law has been discussed and approved by the Lower House." - in other words "I don't care too much about what could happen to web sites and blogs. Eventually, someone other will fix (later) what i'm breaking (now)."
4) After many politicians expressed serious concern about the draft, and literally menaced to leave the government coalition (see: Antonio di Pietro's Blog [antoniodipietro.com] - October, 20th) Mr Levi suddenly "changed opinion", releasing the interview AlbertoP refers to, in date October 23rd!!
So, the REAL STORY is:
Mr Levi has been caught with hands in the jam and immediately changed opinion. Wouldn't have been so, we in Italy were going to be mass-censored - exactly as posted by nx!
Cheers, Feanor.Incomplete thought :) (Score:3, Insightful)
There is honestly NOTHING that government does that could not be BETTER handled by a local business or a local coalition. Monolithic government as an entity, instead of a PACT between NEIGHBORS is nothing short of criminal... it drains resources, accomplishes little short of its own propagation, and ends up harming everyone involved, with the exception of those who cannot enjoy life without controlling others, who invariably end up at the helm of said monolithic government entity.
gotta go, lunch awaits
Re:Incomplete thought :) (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, you DO use the public education system. If it weren't for public education, the US wouldn't even HAVE the economy that enables you to earn the money to buy the computer you are typing on. If it weren't for public education, your income would likely decrease by an amount FAR GREATER than what is currently spent on taxes.
In other words, your rant is just factually incorrect in multiple ways.
Re:In other news (Score:3, Insightful)