Italian Politicians Look To Push Through French-Style 3 Strikes Law

from the shock-and-awe dept

Wed, Jan 21st 2009 4:57pm — Mike Masnick

Italy is the latest European country to fall under the mesmerizing claims of a recording industry that feels the need to punish file sharers by kicking them off the internet. Apparently, Italian politicians are looking to implement a French-style "three strikes" law that would kick people off the internet for their third accusation (not conviction) of file sharing. They're doing this, despite the fact that the EU Parliament has rejected the idea as violating basic civil rights. This is the latest in a long line of attempts by the recording industry to get Italy to attack file sharers. There was the silly attempt to force ISPs to redirect Pirate Bay traffic to an industry website -- which, of course, only drove more traffic to The Pirate Bay in the long run (and was also rejected by a higher court in Italy). Then there have been attempts to get an ISP tax put in place to pay for all that "piracy." So, now it seems that the industry may be succeeding in at least getting a 3 strikes law in place, despite the lack of any logical argument for such a rule.

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Filed Under: copyright, italy, three strikes

5 Comments

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Interested Party, 21 Jan 2009 @ 5:20pm

White List
I'm curious as to:
1) whether there is a white list. (Names of those exempt)
2) what legal council they have retained
3) what is the contingency plan for when the ISP goes belly up
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y8, 22 Jan 2009 @ 7:00am

3 strikes strikes back!
If all it takes is 3 accusations to precipitate an Internet ban, wouldn't it be interesting if people started accusing members of the recording industry or, better yet, their legal staff of pirating?

1) it may catch some hypocrites
2) it'll keep 'em busy
3) it's good for a laugh
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HEHEHE, 22 Jan 2009 @ 7:10am

I wonder what would happen if
RIAA or MPAA insiders are sharing from their offices and the studio's ISP shuts them down after the 3rd strike.....
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kirk, 22 Jan 2009 @ 9:44am

Good News
Mike has illustrated quite well the direction things are going. The record execs can bury their heads in the sand, but those who keep them there amid the sandstorm will find themselves naked and roasting on hardpan. All DRM and Lawsuits are doing is accellerating the process. I think the current establishment of the recording industry is about to be replaced by the smaller, more resilient mammals. Things will probably need to get worse before they improve, and the sooner enough people get pissed off, the better for everyone.
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Drew, 27 Jan 2009 @ 11:56am

False premise
The presumption behind the whole argument is that the record industry needs 'saving'. The time when music had to pass through a loan shark to a major corporate radio station before reaching the consumer is coming to its end. Musicians can record, produce and distribute their own music cheaply and effectively with modern technology. The concept of a company owning the rights to someone's music and selling me the rights to listen to it is simply outdated and needs to be allowed to fail. Sure, it may mean the end of 'worldwide music stardom' and might cause the fragmentation of the currently global musical culture, but that paradigm is only a little less than a century old anyway - would it be such a loss?
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