[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Italian journalist praises registration, taxes for w

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Fri, 13 Apr 2001 19:27:41 -0500
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:        	FC: Italian journalist praises registration, taxes for web sites
Copies to:      	dallomo@dallomo.com, online-news@planetarynews.com,
	cdaffara@mail.conecta.it, alfredo@nexus.org,
	isoc_forum@listserver.isoc.it, ita-pe@NIC.IT
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com

*********
Background:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01913.html
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01911.html
*********

Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 16:04:10 +0200
From: "sergio dallomo" <dallomo@dallomo.com>
To: online-news@planetarynews.com, ralph.hoefelmeyer@wcom.com,
declan@well.com Subject: Re: Politech- Italy reportedly requires news
sites to
   register, pay fees

Hi all,
Well, as a professional italian journalist (32 years in this job, so
far), I dare to define this message (and possible thread) pure
information terrorism and nasty disinformation. Everybody in Italy
will be able -now and in the future- to use the Internet as ever. My
friend Manlio Cammarata of "interlex.it" is a sharp guy and must be
read with the necessary precision, even if he is often bitter-speaking
and pessimistic (many italian intellectuals are when they speak of
their country). BUT, as ever in Italy, nobody can be a professional
journalist unless he got a public title for. In "this" country -please
or not- there are some very specific laws on public press. A
professional journalist must pass an official and formal examination
led by a national authority. Besides this, everybody can publish
whatsoever on papers. About the medium, any regular publication
(journalistic or not) in Italy must be registered at a Public Court
Registry, have an official director (not necessarily a professional),
a professional staff only in the case of a true news paper, and so. In
any way, an online news spread (of a journalistic kind) is journalism.
A web site that tries to cheat a shortcut to publish an online
newspaper (or news serials) must be registered as well as an analog
edition. Rules must be equal for everyone. This was in the interest of
the right of the citizens, the correct competition, the quality of the
news, the credibility of the informations, the reliability of sources,
etc. In Italy all journalists that bypass the VERY strict rules of the
profession are commonly lead to a trial and punished. Very often
banned from the profession. As wherever else, we are not saints, got
no intrinsic truth, are very corporative, got many privileges. And are
not loved, often hated. But here, many of us got a good deal of public
respect. Non journalist, for sure, can be upset. In Italy it works
that way, and most important, it works. Best.

------------------------------------
dott. Sergio M. Dall'Omo
Professional Journalist - New Media & New Techs senior editor
Professor of Digital Communication - DSIT - Architecture University -
Venice Digital Communication & New Media Strategy Consultant Founder
and Owner of the web show portal project "www.newmediabox.com"
------------------------------------ dallomo@dallomo.com
dallomo@nemediabox.com dallomo@newmediamaster.com
sergio.dallomo@gazzettino.it dallomo@usa.net
------------------------------------

*********

See also a Lizardrant at:
http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=01/04/12/1611229&mode=thread

*********

From: "Thomas Leavitt" <thomasleavitt@hotmail.com>
To: declan@well.com
Subject: Re: FC: More on Italy requiring news sites to register, pay
fees Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 15:51:34 -0700 Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID:
<F75FprhMOgRGkQ6mByS0000498c@hotmail.com>

Certainly one of the major results is to subject online publishing to
the national journalists' union.  Translating a quote by Paulo
Serventi Longhi, the head of the union, as reported by PI:

>"Thus ends, at least in Italy, the absurd anarchy that permits
>anyone to publish online without standards and without restrictions,
>and guarantees to the consumer minimum standards of quality in all
>information content, for the first time including electronic media."

This is about the nuttiest thing I've ever heard of a government
doing... it makes the censorhappy Australian government look like
schleps in comparison.

Words fail me...

Regards,
Thomas Leavitt

*********

From: "Bill Fason" <wfason@houston.rr.com>
To: <declan@well.com>
Subject: Re: More on Italy requiring news sites to register, pay fees
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 12:00:18 -0500

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Serventi Longhi, head of the national journalists' union, as reported
by PI:
 > "Thus ends, at least in Italy, the absurd anarchy that permits >
 anyone to publish online without standards and without >
 restrictions, and guarantees to the consumer minimum standards of >
 quality in all information content, for the first time including >
 electronic media."


The "anarchy" of which Mr. Longhi complains sounds essentially like a
re-statement of our First Amendment.   No wonder our ancestors fled
Europe in cramped leaky boats like huddled rats.

But then one looks around and sees such nefarious anti-free speech
proposals gaining currency here in the States.

In Medina, a suburb of Seattle, the city council passed an ordinance
that required people to apply for a license from town officials and
submit to a police background check in order to distribute printed
information, discuss religious or political beliefs, or seek
charitable contributions. http://www.aclu.org/news/2000/n102300b.html

A person who puts up a website which includes opinions about
political candidates without first registering with the Federal
Elections Commission risks legal action.
http://www.aclu.org/news/1999/n101399b.html
FEC opinion at
http://herndon3.sdrdc.com/ao/ao/980022.html

More recently, the McCain-Feingold bill to "reform" campaign finance
includes uncontitutional provisions, including limits on issue
advocacy by nonpartisan groups.
http://www.aclu.org/news/2001/n033001b.html

Can you believe the nerve of some people that they would just put up a
website and start posting their own opinions about God and the world
without any fees, permits, registration, applications in triplicate,
review process, licenses, mandatory union dues, etc.? Where could it
lead?   "Human sacrifice, cats and dogs living together, mass
hysteria" - that's where. <g>

To the tyrant, freedom always looks like anarchy.

Regards,

Bill Fason



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Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 10:26:39 +0200
From: Monique van Dusseldorp <monique@vandusseldorp.com>
Organization: Van Dusseldorp & Partners
To: declan@well.com
Subject: italy - engl lang report
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-UIDL: 2457cd6bddcae85461678ff1557cc8f8

----------------------------------------------
Only professional journalists allowed in Italy
----------------------------------------------
The Italian government has passed a new law stating that ''the
publishers of periodical news on the Web who are not 'professional'
journalists (or write on behalf of them) could be fined up to E282 and
arrested for up to two years, and accused of 'clandestine press'
crime."

In Italy a professional journalist is one who has passed the exam of
the

National Order of Journalists.

Web journalist Alessandro Ludovico says the ''same old rules'' for the
conventional press are now being applied to the Web under pressure
from big publishers' lobbies.

''Today lots of Italian independent Web-zine publishers, frightened by
the announcement, announced to stop the activity,'' said Ludovico,
adding: ''In the Italian Constitution is clearly written: 'Everyone
has the right to freely express his thoughts with spoken words, press
and any other medium'''.

Source: http://www.mediachannel.org/news/today/index.html - Media
Channel / Apoge Online

regards
Monique

********

From: "Theodore Baar" <tedbaar@email.msn.com>
To: <declan@well.com>
Subject: I confess, actively
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 12:49:10 -0400

"It is not sufficient to have a server physically outside of Italy.
The new law applies to information that is sent to the server
originating from Italy or to information that is transmitted into
Italy. "

I think it is a moral obligation for us to carry at least one
offensive Italian story on our sites. Prefeferably, this story should
be unsubstantiated and salacious reporting of the odd sexual practices
of the responsible ministry officials.

These stories can be carried on US servers as satire (protected under
US law). This will make every server involved "clandestine press" and
Italian eurocrats can then sue in a US court to require us to belong
to the Italian Journalist's union and stick tax stamps on our servers.

Of course some groups could get very subtle. A complimentary article,
from a San Francisco server, complimenting the gay government
ministers in Rome would be a big hit. They could sue in San Francisco,
said suit beginning with proving that gay has negative connotations.
Good luck.

I think this could probide endless entertainment for everyone
involved.



Mit freundlichen Gruessen
Meilleures salutations
Best regards

                Ted Baar
--------------------------------------------
             Theodore Baar
             Omegacom, Inc.
    tedbar@technoartisan.net  617-783-5227
  Fax:617-249-0909 http://www.technoartisan.net
-------------------------------------------

***********

Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 18:07:39 +0100
From: Charlie Stross <charlie@antipope.org>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: Re: FC: More on Italy requiring news sites to register, pay
fees

On Thu, Apr 12, 2001 at 11:31:48AM -0500, you wrote:
 > From: Michael Brennen <mbrennen@fni.com>
 > To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
 > Subject: Re: FC: Italy reportedly requires news sites to register,
 pay  fees

Before you worry, remember that this is Italy we're talking about.
Italy, the country where tax evasion is a national sport and anarchism
used to be a major political movement. If this was Germany, or the UK,
or the USA, or some other country where people believe in following
rules, it might be worrying. But Italy? I predict the sudden
appearance of lots of video clips of journalists mooning at the camera
on news sites, specifically to obtain the exemption. And lots of sites
ignoring the law altogether.

The recent EC directive on copyright, now *that* is serious ...


-- Charlie

[Re: European copyright directive, see:
http://eurorights.org/eudmca/ and 
http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/intprop/intprop/news/copy
right.htm --DBM]

************

Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 19:31:49 -0400
From: WWWhatsup <joly@dti.net>
Organization: Pin Pub Proj
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: [Fwd: FC: Italy reportedly requires news sites to register,
pay  fees] Content-Type: multipart/digest;
  boundary="------------0B7B0E9C64F2B15412521346"
X-UIDL: 211dcb5b7e692c645393a3b86ea24d5a

I posted your Italy piece to he ISTF list, were
it garnered some responses (attached)
-- 

Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 16:42:35 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Carlo Daffara <cdaffara@mail.conecta.it>
To: "Alfredo E. Cotroneo" <alfredo@nexus.org>
cc: WWWhatsup <joly@dti.net>, isoc_forum@listserver.isoc.it,
ita-pe@NIC.IT Subject: Re: FC: Italy reportedly requires news sites to
register, pay  fees In-Reply-To:
<5.0.2.1.2.20010412151348.037111f0@mail2.nexus.org>

Dear all,
first of all, I am not a lawyer, and it shows :-)
But I have encountered bad laws in Italy for several years, and can
say for sure that there are many, many more bad laws actually "alive"
in Italy that are completely ignored. We have received several visits
from the PTT, made several recourses, and in general I ended up
adapting myself (and my company) in a country that has at least a 10%
of laws that are uncostitutional, wrong, in contradiction with others
or with EU laws, or all those things together. This is the reason for
my relative bland answer; we are still fighting the SIAE requirements
for another law, and waiting for the court in a recourse against the
PTT - so I know what it feels to be harassed by a government. But: I
am giving the (new, or old) government time to publish the actuation
decreet and see if it solves the problem. cheers
                                   Carlo Daffara

Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 16:04:11 +0200
To: Carlo Daffara <cdaffara@mail.conecta.it>, WWWhatsup <joly@dti.net>
From: "Alfredo E. Cotroneo" <alfredo@nexus.org> Subject: Re: FC: Italy
reportedly requires news sites to register, pay
   fees
Cc: isoc_forum@listserver.isoc.it, ita-pe@NIC.IT

Dear Carlo and all,

Let's state clearly what the law says, i.e. that all sites that carry
regular news on-line (whatever kind of news - whether sport, church or
politics - it does not really matter) now they MUST register with the
local Court, and have a professional journalist endorsed by the State
sign in the site at the Court. The same applies for every electronic
form of news delivery electronically (i.e. weekly newsletters
delivered by e-mail). What a member of the now defunct Italian
Parliament (to be re-elected on May 13) or a representative of a
Ministry says to modify the scope of the law, has *absolutely* no
effect, and offers no guarantee when the PTT (Post and
Telecommunication) police takes you to Court.

It is very clear that this law is another serious attack to freedom of
speech in Italy, and several groups have already started to speak out
against it with banners, petitions and articles on the free Internet
press (see i.e .www.vita.org and www.interlex.it, both sites are in
Italian). Unfortunately, since the new law comes to the rescue of
professional journalisst (Radio, TV and paper media), no big campaign
has been seen yet on the paper media and TV. To the effect of this and
any other law, it does not really matter where the Web site is
located, as the law may be enforced on all Italian citizens and
companies and ISPs (ISPs may be held responsible for "clandestine
press distribution" in case their clients do not register their news
Web site with the local Court).

This is clearly a law promoted by the lobby of professional registered
journalists, and chief representatives of the Journalist have recently
and blatantly admitted that in a series of interviews during the last
few days. As journalists in the paper media are being out-placed,
several on-line magazines escaped so far the strict rules of the press
in Italy, and are seriously competing with the paper media.
Professional journalists are experiencing serious difficulties because
of the demise of the paper press/media, and are trying to obtain
protection from the State, and put forcibly their feet in the new
Internet media, protected by the State. After the new law, web
portals, and the majority of Web sites in Italy are expected to hire a
"registered" journalist and pay them a fee to sign in their web site.

Last but not least, due to a law passed in 1948, no newspaper or
magazine (and now no Internet news site) can be printed unless it is
registered by a "professional" and State recognized journalist. The
State and lobby of professional journalists have the last say on whom
can be admitted to the "albo" of "professional" journalists in Italy.
As it happens in most western societies, journalist should be
recognized as such by their professional activity. On the contrary in
Italy the profession is clearly defined by laws, state organized exams
and the final word to the admission to the closed group is by ... the
members themselves.

We expect the law to be challenged against the freedom of speech
articles contained in our constitution (art. 21), but as I said,
sadly, until then, all sites that carry news at "regular" times
overhere in Italy are subject to the new law.


Alfredo Cotroneo / NEXUS-IBA, Milan, Italy


At 15:08 12/04/2001 +0200, Carlo Daffara wrote:
>This is not true. The law talks about the extension of the benefits
>and requirements of the press (that is, fiscal and financial benefits
>and responsibility for the published materials). If you don't want
>the fiscal benefits, just don't register as an online journal, and
>the law doesn't apply to you. (directly from the words of the law
>promoter, at the national "radio 24"). This is not to say that the
>law in itself is ok, (it is really badly written in terms of clarity)
>but that it is not really against freedom of speech. cheers from
>Italy
>                                   Carlo Daffara

***********
--
Alfredo E. Cotroneo, CEO,  NEXUS-Int'l Broadcasting Association
PO Box 11028, 20110, Milano, Italy           email: alfredo@nexus.org
ph: +39-335-214-614 (try first)/+39-02-266-6971 fax: +39-02-706-38151





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