By Tony Smith
Published Thursday 20th May 2004 14:10 GMT
Italy has made transferring content via the Internet without the permission of the copyright holder a criminal offence

The Italian parliament yesterday voted in favour of imposing jail sentences of up to three years on anyone caught uploading or downloading unauthorised copyright material to and from the Net.

The move comes in direct response to the rise of P2P services such as Kazaa and Gnutella, and was prompted by the country's film industry.

Until now, Italy's copyright laws, which date back to 1941, have focused on protecting copyright holders from those who seek to profit financially from the unauthorised duplication of content. The new law extends that to anyone who performs such an act, whether for financial gain or not.

In short, by sharing music for free, Italian P2Pers risk punishment almost as severe as if they had attempted to sell pirate CDs.

Those found guilty of the unauthorised distribution of copyright material now face a fine of between €154 and €1032 ($185-1240), a jail sentence of between six months and three years, the confiscation of their hardware and software, and the revelation of their misdeeds in Italy's two national newspapers, La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera.

The law was passed by the Italian Senate despite the abstention of the Lista Prodi party and no votes from the Greens and Italian Communists. "The law is mistaken in method and merit," Green senator Fiorello Cortiana told La Repubblica today.

However, both opposition parties gained the Senate's agreement to re-consider the penalties the law imposes on violators.
READ THE SOURCE
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/20/italy_p2p_law/

Hey Italy, Fascism's back!

You might want to check if Mussolini's still dead.

not so sure if i want my wife to re-enlist for orders to italy. i'd like to see the sights, not the bars.

It appears from the date (1941) that Italy's original copyright laws were in fact passed under the reign of "IL Duce"! (Mussolini). Let hope that if they find anyone over there guilty of "unauthorized distribution of copyright material" (i.e. of the P2P kind) that the only punishment that is meeted out is the $154 - $1250 fine. A jail sentence for filesharing is crazy.

Guess I won't be buying any more olive oil.

... REAL smart!! And how much money does it take per day to keep somebody in jail???

And just who, or what organization(s), were responsible for such an unnecessarily intrusive law?
It's nothing less than despicable the way these types of mean-spirited draconian laws are being forced on people -- in various nations, including ours, sad to say. I tell ya, sometimes I feel disgusted and ashamed to be an earthling!

Clarification. By my saying "just who, or what organization(s) were responsible for such an unnecessarily intrusive law?" -- I actually meant: "what persons or organizations were instrumental in impacting the will of the Italian Parliament for it to make such a dastardly decision that they did.