[Foundation-l] keep watching the Italian government

[Gianluigi Gamba]

Hi everybody,

the Italian government has advanced a proposal for a law that - if
approved by the Parliament - will oblige all the "publishing
productions", regardless of the media they use for their diffusion,
therefore web-based ones included, to be registered into the "registro
degli operatori della comunicazione" (ROC) - "register of the operator
of the communications" (such a register nowadays seem to exist in very
few contries in the world).
Registration is virtually free of charge, but it requires someone (not
yet clear whether a citizen, a professional or an organization - not
yet clear whether Italian citizen of not) to take legal responsability
for the contents.

The current text of law proposal includes among the "publishing
productions" (together with on-line newpapers and other media) also
the personal blogs(!) and non-profit experiences like the Italian
editions of the Wikimedia projects.

"Per attività editoriale si intende ogni attività diretta alla
realizzazione e distribuzione di prodotti editoriali, nonché alla
relativa raccolta pubblicitaria. L'esercizio dell'attività editoriale
può essere svolto anche in forma non imprenditoriale per finalità non
lucrative".

"With publishing activity is meant every activity aimed to produce and
diffuse publishing productions and to the relevant advertising
activities. A publishing activity can be done also under
non-enterpreneurial forms with no lucrative aim".

Wikimedia projects are in a borderline situation: they are WMF's own
and therefore the law of the US applies, nevertheless their Italian
edition are meant for an Italian audience (yes, not only on the soil
of the Italian Republic).

If this law proposal becomes a law and Italian authorities ask for the
registration, we might risk the Italian versions of the Wikimedia
projects to be made unavailable for the Italian citizens.
It's clearly impossible for the Italian version of the Wikimedia
projects to find a person who can bear the legal responsibility for
all the contents.
No one would guarantee personally about Wikimedia projects contents,
and if someone would be so crazy to do that, such person would have
the last word on every Wiki* article. That's absolutely incompatible
with the nature of the Wikimedia projects.

For those of you who can read Italian, you can find some details here
http://punto-informatico.it/p.aspx?i=2092327
and an on-line petition for dumping this law proposal here
http://www.petitiononline.com/noDDL/petition.html

I wonder whether WMF and the Wiki* communities can somehow make
pressure and help spreading this news around the globe.

Hoping for the law proposal to be dumped or changed, or for the law
not applied to Wikimedia projects (although such a law would very
seriously impact on the freedom of speech in Italy), I thank you all
for your attention.

G. (aka Paginazero)