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 Warcra
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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 cl
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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 reasonab
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Besides work, there's als
Not the white picket fence part... (Score:3, Informative)
US home ownership has been increasing for years and continues to do so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeownership_in_the_United_States#Historical [wikipedia.org]
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Home ownership is up only if you count the UNPAID mortgages that are skyrocketting.
No surprise there. In typical true geek fashion, many of us still count the numbers on the screen as a measure of true wealth.
As a friend of mine told me several years back... "Those numbers on p
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Also, I would love to see you tell Warren Buffet that his portfolio is worthless because stock certificates aren't "real, tangible, physical goods."
You know you're a bit of a kook, don't you?
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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" i
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Personally, I only keep about a month of expenses in the bank. Everything else goes directly to the investment brokerage. I expect my investment dividends to exceed my personal income from work in about 15 years. If I kept everything I earn in "physical" goods, as you suggest, that would never
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
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There are some nobel prize winning economists who disagree with you. You're falling in to a trap called "reductionism," where we want simple answers, so we oversimplify to the point of being wrong.
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.
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Furthermore, I can also tell you that that house depicted in the article is not worth 550K. It's more likely
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Re:In other news (Score:4, Interesting)
"Middle class" used to mean a small home and a single car, or a modest apartment if you lived in a city -- plus entertainment/disposable income that's a fraction of what people spend today (as a fraction of their income, but probably in absolute terms when you adjust for inflation, too). Today, people don't consider themselves successful unless they live in a large house, have two or three cars, boatloads of entertainment expenses, eat prepared food constantly, and go on jet-setting vacations: none of that was ever part of "middle class" life a few generations ago.
One of the reasons the 'middle class' has disappeared is because expectations have become unrealistically high as a result of shady credit practices. A person living debt-free and within their means on a moderate income can still be quite comfortable in many parts of the country, but they won't live as well -- to an outside observer, anyway -- as their neighbors who are racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars of mortgage and consumer debt. That creates a lot of social pressure to do the same, particularly since it forces class definitions in a community to creep upwards.
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Then the poor get the decade old vehicle at a very reasonable price.
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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
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I cannot imagine a world without speech.
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Speech is expression of information.
Money is expression of information [paulbirch.net]. (scroll to part 3)
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Linking to some sites that had bomb making info in them. Is equivalent to donating money directly to terrorist organizations.
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Give money to terrorist group = "Hey world, you actually owe me $500 worth less in goods, and these guys over here, $500 more."
Post bomb-making materials = "Hey world, this is actually how you can make an explosive device."
You said you can't imagine a world without money. That includes all worlds in which people don't collectively change decisions about who is entitled to what, because that process is functionally equivale
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It's been working for hundreds of years without any problems.
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This is why we are seeing more and more laws passed that tax hotel guests, reckless drivers, smokers, the self employed, and um-teen o
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Notice however that if said economic regulation applies to Microsoft, Google or [insert any big company] then concern for rights seamlessly vanish on Slashdot and everyone magically becomes turns to law positivism.
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"I like to be in favor of strong employment laws that give the government full audit power over every corporation's decision to fire any one whatsoever."
Where was your concern for rights and free association then?
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Which is the exact same thing I'm complaining about now, and here [slashdot.org].
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My criticism there was not of licensure as such, but the fact that this licensure inevitably goes far beyond what those public interest concerns you listed, could possibly justify. They do not, in other words, simply make sure every practicing neurosurgeon knows what he's doing. They make sure that, in addition to being qualified for neurosurgery, he has
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My response was to my opponent's actual position, as he/she wrote it. I am under no obligation to figure out his/her unwritten positions, which he/she might hold, which somehow temper or put in another light their message. As it was written, the message bemoans all regulation without exception. To which I responded.
True, these things occur. And that i
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Your post criticized libertarians *in general* with little apparent knowledge of what libertarians *in general* believe.
As it was written, the message bemoans all regulation without exception.
No, it bemoans licensure *aimed at limiting competition with politically-powerful groups*.
To whic
Coming soon to a government near you... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Blog (Score:3, Insightful)
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Re: Blog (Score:2)
Re:Blog (Score:5, Funny)
1. There is very little traffic to the site other than the bots posting link back comments still trying to fool google.
2. There is a flurry of postings near the creation date of the site waning down to many once a month with the six of the last 10 postings being the message "No time to post today, too much work. Will try to catch up later."
3. The posts with content contain many unsubstatiated statements proclaimed as fact all discussed in an exasperated matter in a hardly subtle attempt to garner emotional support from people they don't know.
4. There are very few comments to postings other than self-posted comments providing clarification or an update.
I'm sure there are other identifying characteristics, but these are the ones that you can count on...
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5. There are banner ads framing the text and graphic ads peppered throughout the body in a not very subtle attempt to generate AdSense income.
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-Most articles are about the latest boys band, or who dates who in the classroom, except a few "nazis aren't good" or "we should ban war" vain attempt to bring some intersting content.
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This sure applies to many, but far from all, and many, many blogs are quite popular over time.
But I hope I don't even have to tell that, and that was mostly just a joke on generalizing blogs.
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3. The posts with content contain many unsubstatiated statements proclaimed as fact all discussed in an exasperated matter in a hardly subtle attempt to garner emotional support from people they don't know.
3.14. Posts of obvious falsehoods or urban legends, followed by helpful comments from readers linking to Snopes...
...followed in turn by a long response by the blogger praising the many-eyes editorial power of the blogosphere and how this example shows that "citizen journalism" is so much superior
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Number 5 (Score:2)
You need to talk to some Italians about the Italian government's propensity to tax anything and everything, thus basically creating a nation of expert tax cheats. Indeed, a continent of tax che
The more things change, (Score:4, Interesting)
As this and the current Burma censorware article show, nothing threatens the powerful like a free exchange of ideas.
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.
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!"
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"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*
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:No need to worry. (Score:4, Insightful)
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And that's just the sort of laws the bureaucrats like, laws everyone's guilty of violating and which they can selectively enforce.
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Officer1: "Dammit. I just KNOW that guy's hiding something, but we don't have anything 'gainst him."
Officer2: "Does he have a blog?"
Officer1: "Yeah, but he doesn't write anything..."
Officer2: "Get your gun and let's roll."
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For example, their traffic laws. Anyone who has ever visited Italy will understand this.
One day soon (Score:5, Interesting)
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Great! (Score:2)
Re: Great! (Score:2)
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Man, I think it's time for you to take a red pill.
The EU may come to the rescue (Score:2, Interesting)
Also how are they going to stop it. It'll be difficult to prove as the bloggers can use proxies and the like and how are the authorities going to prosecute 1000's of people.
even non-commercial. (Score:2, Funny)
On a somewhat serious note this is regardless of whether the blog is intended to be profitable. Yikes!
Freedom shmeedom! (Score:2)
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.
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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 don't care what the motivation is, anytime someone needs to get permission from a government to express their views, that's an assault on free speech.
The more controversial question is whether it's an assault on free speech designed to stifle criticism of the government.
Il Duce (Score:5, Funny)
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Censorship or unclear thinking (Score:2, Troll)
The simplest solution i
For sufficiently small values of "Italy" (Score:4, Informative)
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USSR? (Score:2, Insightful)
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So, let's see this on the bright side:
- No more Eminem
- No more problems with obesity (it's hard to get obese with socialist-style supermarkets, unless, of course you are a high head in the Party)
- Plenty of space on even the most crowded highways.
- Your daughters will learn to play oboe instead of listening to Britney Spears
Of course, I will have to burn all my Rush's CDs, and that books are going to help me keep warm
Article totally misleading.... get the facts (Score:5, Informative)
There is a law being discussed in the Italian parliament which intends to set the rules for online publications, and define their responsibilities.
The goal is to recognize and treat professional online news sites in the same way as traditional newspapers, where there is an editor ultimately responsible and accountable for the information
published. This is not unlike press laws in most western countries: if, for instance, the New York Times publishes unfounded corruption allegations against a politician, its editor is ultimately responsible for those allegations, and the politician could sue him for defamation.
There was some initial concern in the blogging world that this law could also apply to bloggers, but this concern was already cleared by the undersecretary to the Cabinet, Ricardo Franco Levi, which is the main curator of the text of the proposed law. He clearly stated that the new law would only apply to professional journalists, and that it would absolutely not apply to bloggers of any kind.
More information (in italian): http://www.corriere.it/politica/07_ottobre_23/levi_legge_editoria_no_bavaglio_ai_blog.shtml [corriere.it]
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And if a law needs clarification by it's owner because it's not clear enough if it applies to a certain situation or not, what blocks him from changing his idea after the law is approved?
Man, you trust government too much.
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"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.
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What is funny in your comment, and that this proposal, on its original form would be another restraint on free press, and thus, in the long range would increase the chance of more unjust and unfair laws being passed without a single complaint.
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What about a professional journalist's personal blog?
Re:Article totally misleading.... get the facts (Score:4, Interesting)
Now, the editor might very well get skewed for writing false alligations, but he will get skewered by his boss and adveritsers, not by the law. He might very well find himself out on the street, but the law will have no part in it.
There are a lot of things to not love about many American laws. US free speech law (or lack there off) is not one of them. When it comes to free speech, the US kicks ass and takes names like few others in the world. You will find yourself very hard pressed to find a nation with more liberal free speech laws.
They fail. (Score:2)
Silvio Berlusconi has done a good job of dragging them back in the hole.
Apparently, the law wil be changed (Score:4, Informative)
Especially this one:
that he's sure that Mr. Ricardo Franco Levi is the first who will be willing to take action to change it.
Not the truth (Score:5, Informative)
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Why, they might even be required to pay a tax in Italy!
Re:Not the truth (Score:4, Funny)
Something like this [archive.org]
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*sigh*
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Games: John Carmack On Centipede
Posted by brian on Wed October 24, 10:26 AM
from the have fun hitting reload page dept.
Cpt_Garthos writes "John Carmack says that there is too much violence in today's games especially Centipede. Game makers should focus on playability and include more lasers in their games rather than more gore. The interview is here"
Re:Not the truth (Score:4, Interesting)
But it is true that the law text was extremely generic, and so prone to every kind of interpretation, pessimistic or optimistic.
The basic problem is that italian laws are often very badly written (in the sense that are basically and fundamentally unclear). And in the confusion, everyone can say everything...
Re:Not the truth (Score:5, Informative)
Example 1:
I make 100 Euro per month with Google ads on my blog. It means that my blog or web site is "profitable". I guess like anywhere in Europe, you can keep it "as an secondary source of revenue" without any company registration until it reaches a max. turnover.
Should I register my web site to this administration?
Example 2:
I have a popular video game news web site: It makes a relatively serious turnover, let's say 50.000 Euro. Enough for me to live, not enough to hire a professional journalist.
I guess this time I will be forced to register my web site to this administration and to hire in some way a profesional journalist.
In this case it hurts "very badly" entrepreneuship. As usual European European internet small/young entrepreneurs will be "forced" to stay undercover (using various techniques like a paypal account, offshore address etc.) until they reach a decent turnover and when they can face the high burden of running an "official" activity in this highly bureaucratic
continent.
The only ones who won't be hurt is the establishment or those who have moved to a more business friendly country (one click away)
Actually it is: here's the text (Score:5, Interesting)
The source of the information is not just Beppe Grillo's blog, since that redirects to this article [repubblica.it] by La Repubblica, the main Italian newspaper, and the text of the proposed law [beppegrillo.it] itself.
In the text of the proposed law, I read: (Art. 2:1)
This means, in brief, that any product with purpose of information, formation, diffusion and entertainment meant for publication is actually targeted by the law, with no exception for no-profit sites. You only need to be a provider of information to be required to register your activity (Art. 6:1). Mr. AlbertoP, you are talking out of your ass, and Mr. Levi in his interview is lying (or he's incompetent, or both).
Now, some background for you Americans about what is happening over in Italy: there is mounting dissatisfaction with the current political class, which is seen as highly corrupt and mostly busy with covering its ass. I voted for the current government (Prodi, centre-left), and there is no way I am going over to the other side (which would be Berlusconi's), but I am myself very dissatisfied with the current bipartisan climate, and it seems I am in good company. Last year the parliament passed a general pardon to solve an overpopulation problem in jails (you read right: too many criminals, let's put them back on the streets!) which caused a spike in crime rate; the actual reason for a pardon instead of building more jails was that the pardon covered also crimes committed by certain politicians [wikipedia.org]. This, the fact that the government is more busy with infighting that with maintaining the promises given in their 280-page program presented at the last election, the personality of jackass-politician Clemente Mastella [wikipedia.org] (who attended a mafioso's wedding and is now fittingly minister of Justice) and many other things caused a general discontent.
Enter Beppe Grillo [wikipedia.org]. A well-known comedian with a history of getting banned and censored for jokes on politicians since the '80s, he started a blog a few years ago and, in the current climate, decided to organise a "Fuck-off day" [wikipedia.org] ("Vaffanculo day", V-Day as in V for Vendetta), a series of national rallies all over Italy and abroad. 4-letter words aside, the idea was to gather signatures for some popular-initiative law proposals (no felons can run for office, two-term limit in parliament, and so on). About a million people participated, and 300,000 signatures were gathered (even on an Italian scale, this is quite a success).
Politicians got scared and started to attack Grillo almost in unison; this law is an effort to silence Grillo and anybody who would take his place.
For the good news: infrastructure minister Antonio Di Pietro (yes, I voted for his party and I'm damn happy I did) said that if this law proposal is not retired he's torpedoing the government [antoniodipietro.com] and forcing new elections. Nothing straightens out politicians like the threat to lose their post... Grazie Tonino!
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Also, a minor correction: the main Italian newspaper is "Il Corriere della Sera", not "La Repubblica" (important, but not the main).
The rest of the post is off-topic, although debatable, so I'm not going to comment on it.
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I wish I could believe that. The Constitution [wikisource.org] explicitly forbids financing private schools in article 33, yet private schools are financed using some creative accountability, such as calculating the savings to public school when a kid goes to private school. Anyway, which article
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Article 5 of the proposal defines "publishing activity" as production, distribution and collecting advertisement revenue. Did you mean article 6, the one that makes it compulsory for anyone with a "publishing activity" to register?
As for the Constitution [wikisource.org] articles, let's flesh them out one by one:
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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
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Wrong word. The difference between stupidity and ignorance is that one of them is curable.
-mcgrew