Italian MPs propose Internet disconnection law: one copyright accusation from anyone and you lose your Internet connection

Italian MPs from Berlusconi's party have proposed legislation that will require ISPs to disconnect any customer on receipt of a single unsubstantiated copyright complaint, from anyone -- even someone who's not connected with the alleged rightsholder in any way.

1) citizens, outside of any judicial proceeding and without the right to appeal to the judicial authority, may be banned to access the Internet if ANYONE (a rightholder or an ordinary citizen) notifies a provider about alleged infringement of copyright or trademark or patent ("one strike" disconnections);

2) Internet service providers must comply to the blacklisting of citizens who are *suspected* of copyright or trademark or patent infringements ("proscription lists" to ban citizens from any access to the Net);

3) an Internet service provider must use preventive filters against services that infringe copyright, trademark or patents;

4) an Internet service provider must not promote or advertise, and must use preventive filters against, services that do not directly violate copyright, trademark or patents, but that *may* lead citizens to *think* that infringing services exist;

5) a provider or a hosting provider which does not use effective filters will be charged with civil liability.

A short analysis of Internet killer Centemero draft law by Paolo Brini for AirVPN. Creative Commons 3.0 BY-SA (attribution, share-alike) (via Reddit)

• [hassenpfeffer]

  J’accuse, Bunga-Bungasconi! No more Intarwebz porn or escort ordering for YOU!

• [TharkLord]

  Soon, getting on the Internet will be as easy and fun and getting on an airplane!

• [jrobie]

  This is unacceptably lenient: if you cut off internet service, these copyright thieves will just find some other way to steal.  The Italians must cut off their electricity as well.  If that doesn’t work, they can try cutting off the plumbing too. 

• [awjt]

  Sounds like fun!  Levy a complaint against all Italian ISP customers to shut off Italy and therefore speed up the InterWebs for the rest of us!  For great justice!

  • [Matt Katz]

    I do not understand why any efficient system isn’t built with an analysis of the nefarious purposes for which it will also be efficient.

    • [Confess]

      Your comment suggests the Italians are not aware of the abuses to which this law would be put. I think they may be counting on it. Remember, this is the same country that has put scientists on trial for failing to predict an earthquake and has given a slice of it’s territory to the biggest hive of powerful, well-connected Pedophiles on the planet. I think they’re pining for the dark ages.

• [Mitchell Glaser]

  I preemptively accuse Berlusconi and all of his MP’s.

  Is it true that Berlusconi is the richest man in Italy, or nearly so? I propose a new axiom, call it Glaser’s Law: a country is not a democracy if its richest citizen is president or prime minister.

• [Chuck Holt]

  Can I accuse myself of illegally downloading a…

• [lmaury]

  First move of the trolls: accuse every member of the Italian parliament of copyright infringement…. Plus their wives, girlfriends, children. These guys -really- didn’t think this one through.

  • [Confess]

    Do you honestly think the kind of Luddite who supports a bill like this uses the Internet to begin with?

    All joking aside, this isn’t about piracy, but about giving the party in power the tools to suppress the opposition. You can bet your bottom euro that the enforcement on this will be biased in favor of Berluscon’s campaign donors and business partners. What better way to let your backers shut down the political and business competition than to give them to tools to completely disconnect them from the Internet in the digital age

  • [delt664]

    Come now, a real troll will just go down the phonebook and accuse everyone in the entire country.  That troll will be me.

    No interwebs for you, Italia!

• [mmww]

  The only solution is to cut off the thieve’s head… Hello, dark age.

• [peterblue11]

  i want a law that if somebody accuesses u of pedophilia ur penis gets disconnected.

• [justanothercynic]

  More proof that the EU parliament has little power over the member states, they introduced measures to stop this shit happening. Member states responded by going the other way and it can do nothing to stop them.

• [jimkirk]

  What could possibly go wrong?

• [neapel]

  Looks like somebody told Berlusconi he doesn’t own the majority share of that internet thing. As with TV stations and newspapers, there were two options, but looks like buying the internet was a bit too much, even with chinese backing money…

• [Vadym Zakrevskyy]

  I, hereby, bring forth a complaint, that all Italian MPs from Berlusconi’s party were and are engaging in illegal file sharing and infringing on copyright of various associated and otherwise affiliated to me persons, entities and such. Please cut their broadbandz nao.

• [p96]

  Wow. You could disconnect all of Italy by going through the phone book. I *really* hope they automate this system.

• [janusnode]

  Interestingly enough, the university where I work received a copyright complaint related to some class notes posted on my university website last week. Their first and immediate response (before informing me of the allegation, which they did by phone message later) was to shut down all my access to the university computers (including e-mail and access to my calendar), and all access, by anyone, to my websites hosted on their servers! I was blown away by this. I pointed out that there should at least be some attempt to a.) communicate the allegation to me b.) figure out if I was in fact guilty and c.) learn if I was going to object to simply removing the allegedly infringing materials, which is all the the accuser was asking for. I have no comment on my culpability, which is irrelevant anyway since I had no issue removing the designated materials. My internet access, absolutely vital to my work, was cut-off for 18 hours. I raised a fuss and the university is now re-assessing its procedures in such cases…What is it about the internet that causes people to so easily suspend the widely-accepted principle of the assumption of innocence until proven guilty?

  • [Oliver Schmieding]

    “What is it about the internet that causes people to so easily suspend the widely-accepted principle of the assumption of innocence until proven guilty?”
    —hmf, damned if know ….educated guess: fear. fear and terror. fear, terror and a healthy dose of expect-the-worst? 

    i get an image of greedy yog-sothoth -wyrmlike lawyers crying “ceeeease!” while waving some notes in legalese in their slimecovered appendices.

    slowly, they crawl forward, approaching the unsuspecting secretary of your faculty…
    iiäää! shub-niggurath! the copyright lawyer with a thousand cars!  iiäää !!

• [billstewart]

  These Italian MPs are obviously plagiarizing from the French Three-Strikes law, and plagiarism is a violation of the “moral rights” provisions of European copyright laws.   So they need to be cut off immediately, any websites they run closed, and make sure that the data plans on their mobile phones get cut off, including texting, since texting gateways into the Internet as well.

• [SuperGauntlet]

  Good to know that the government still protects the rights and interests of the people.. Right?

  Because corporations are people?

• [Oliver Schmieding]

  *heh*  
  so what we’re going to do is found new family, (  let’s call it the “net”rangetha ;)  )
  and offer ppl protection from “false” accusations.

• [Ramone]

  Just as long as they institute a new political mechanism that as an elected official, if you’re ever badmouthed in public you are immediately expelled from office. 

  Fair is fair. 

• [CountZero]

  Un. Fucking. Believable.

• [Robert Bell]

  The new Mussolini!

• [blissfulight]

  When are they going to propose a law to permanently disconnect Berlusconi from politics?  

• [onereader]

  It seems that the MP who sponsored this proposal was appointed to the Parliament because she was Berlusconi’s youngest son’s teacher.

  That’s how things work in Italy.

• [petr]

  kind of like in world war 2 – in Nazi occupied countries you could accuse someone of listening to foreign broadcasts. 

  This happened to my dad growing up in Czechoslovakia. The German  police came in and asked the kids and family – separately where they keep the radio. The also asked why they needed a flashlight. (The answer was to go to the outside loo it too dark otherwise).  My fathers family had no electricity anyway so after a while they left. And my dad never did find out who reported them..
  Petr

• [ɹǝʇsnɯ uɐıןıʞ]

  Cut their hands off. Zero strike. Against these Pirate Raper Terrorist Copyright Infringers we should enable martial law, or better Venusian law. Or better: read some Vogon poetry to them, that’ll teach them!

• [Gridreign 741]

  this does not go far enough! they need to make italian car manufacturers tell their customers to not buy that ferrari or lambo as it can be used to drive over the speed limit!

• [Max]

  max $ nslookup http://www.governo.it
  Non-authoritative answer:
  Name:    http://www.governo.it
  Address:  195.66.10.19

  Dear Italian Copyright Police,
  I’d like to notify you of some illegal downloading that appears to be coming from IP address 195.66.10.19.

  Thank you.

  Repeat until all government websites are off the net, then start on something else.

  If you’re feeling really clever, there are supposedly ways to make P2P clients fake their addresses. I suspect that if you send out requests with a forged from address they will get back to that address and blocked at the firewall, but I don’t suppose that’s any excuse. In fact I can see “Your firewall is deliberately destroying evidence of your illegal download activities”….

• [Belinda Contague]

  Sounds like Zazzle.  ANYONE can claim they own the copyright on any of your work (artwork, even photographs) and Zazzle will pull your product.  There is no appeal.  They don’t care about the law.