[icann-eu] ccTLD news in Italy

[Vittorio Bertola <vb@vitaminic.net>]

Hi Andy,

I thought you could be interested in what's happening in Italy.

The government (which will expire in one week or so, due to incoming
elections) is trying to approve an anti-cybersquatting law. This could
be fine, but unfortunately Italian parliament members do not seem to
have clear how the Internet works, so among the law provisions (even
if the law is still under development) there seem to be:

- the current ccTLD Naming Authority is dissolved, and a State
committee takes its place in writing rules for domain registration;

- Italian rules apply to any domain registered by Italian entities,
even if it is a gTLD or a ccTLD in another country (but non-Italian
entities could register .it domains without being affected by this
law);

- if your domain name is a trademark or personal name and you are not
its "owner", you are guilty, lose the domain and have to pay a fine,
even if you registered it years ago; this also applies to "similar" or
"confusing" names;

- lots of new bureaucracy is introduced, i.e. the State maintains the
domain registry, written certifications could have to be provided
before registration...

Obviously the whole community - from users up to registrars - is
moving against this, with the exception of those who are nearer to the
political environment. Unfortunately, the current Naming Authority is
terrible, and has proven not to be able to govern anything or to
support the general interest; nevertheless, such a model would
paralyse the Internet in Italy and be a dangerous example for other
European countries.

By the way, another law under discussion would require all web sites
that have any kind of "editorial" content to have a professional
journalist as a director, to grant against "uncontrolled
misinformation" - otherwise owners would be sent to jail. Nice, isn't
it?

-- 
.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo vb.
Vittorio Bertola     <vb@vitaminic.net>    Ph. +39 011 23381220
Vitaminic [The Music Evolution] - Vice President for Technology