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Archive for the ‘italy’ Category

Italy Convicts Google Execs for Down Syndrome Video

By Reuters, February 24, 2010

MILAN (Reuters) — A Milan court convicted three Google executives on Wednesday for violating the privacy of an Italian boy with Down syndrome by letting a video of him being bullied be posted on the site in 2006.

Google will appeal the six-month suspended jail terms and said the verdict ‘poses a crucial question for the freedom on which the internet is built,’ since none of the three employees found guilty had anything to do with the offending video.

‘They didn’t upload it, they didn’t film it, they didn’t review it and yet they have been found guilty,’ said Google’s senior communications manager, Bill Echikson, in Milan.

The court convicted senior vice-president and chief legal officer David Drummond, former Google Italy board member George De Los Reyes and global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer. Senior product marketing manager Arvind Desikan was acquitted.

The executives, none of whom are based in Italy, do not face actual imprisonment as the sentences were suspended, while an appeals process in Italy can take many years.
The guilty verdict ‘poses a crucial question for the freedom on which the internet is built,’ Google asserts.

They were not in Italy for the hearing. Drummond is based in California, Fleischer in Paris and Desikan in London, while De Los Reyes has since retired, Echikson told Reuters.

The complaint was brought by an Italian advocacy group for people with Down syndrome, Vivi Down, and the boy’s father, after four classmates at a Turin school uploaded a clip to Google Video showing them bullying the boy.

‘A company’s rights cannot prevail over a person’s dignity. This sentence sends a clear signal,’ public prosecutor Alfredo Robledo told reporters outside the Milan courthouse.

Down syndrome is the most common genetic cause of mental retardation, occurring in about 1 out of 700 live births.

The video was filmed with a mobile phone and posted on the site in September 2006.

‘Threat To Net Freedom’

Google argued that it removed the video immediately after being notified and cooperated with Italian authorities to help identify the bullies and bring them to justice.

It says that, as hosting platforms that do not create their own content, Google Video, YouTube and Facebook cannot be held responsible for content that others upload.

Drummond said in a statement the verdict ‘sets a dangerous precedent’ and meant ‘every employee of any internet hosting service faces similar liability.’ He said the law was clear in Italy and the European Union that ‘hosting providers like Google are not required to monitor content that they host.’

Leslie Harris, the president of the Washington D.C.-based Center for Democracy and Technology said the ruling was an ‘extremely dangerous precedent.’

‘This is precisely the sort of action by a Western democracy that undermines Secretary Clinton’s call for global internet freedom,’ Harris said. ‘The principle that technological intermediaries should be protected from liability for content posted by users has been a cornerstone of Internet freedom. It is enshrined in both E.U. and U.S. law.

‘Most troubling, what happened it Italy is unlikely to stay in Italy. The Italian court’s actions today will surely embolden authoritarian regimes and be used justify their own efforts to suppress internet freedom.’

Fleischer said if employees were ‘criminally liable for any video on a hosting platform, when they had absolutely nothing to do with the video in question, then our liability is unlimited.’

The prosecutors accused Google of negligence, saying the video remained online for two months even though some web users had already posted comments asking for it to be taken down.

Down syndrome support group Vivi Down said in a statement that it was ‘very satisfied’ with the guilty verdict.

Censoring of websites has become a hot issue in Italy in recent months, following a spate of hate sites against officials including Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The government briefly studied plans to black out internet hate sites after fan pages emerged praising an attack on the premier, but the idea was dropped after executives from Facebook, Google and Microsoft agreed to a shared code of conduct rather than legislation.

(By Manuela D’Alessandro. Additional reporting by Emilio Parodi and Eleanor Biles; writing by Stephen Brown in Rome; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton. Additional reporting by Ryan Singel.)

Italian secret internet censorship list, 287 site subset, 21 Jun 2009 – Wikileaks

From Wikileaks
June 20, 2009
Summary

This list presents 287 internet sites currently censored by Italy. This quasi-voluntary system, which was introduced under the banner of fighting “child pornography” relies on a secret, unaccountable list of site names. Because of this lack of transparency, and the power of the censorship system, the blacklist is of intense interest.

Secret “child pornography” censorship blacklists in other countries, such as China, Thailand, Australia, Finland and Denmark have all been shown by WikiLeaks to have been corrupted into censoring non-child pornographic content, including political content (all but Denmark). It seems to be a law of human affairs that when such powerful, unaccountable, systems are introduced, they soon stray from their stated purpose.

The majority of sites on the Italian list seem to be unrelated to child pornography. While some do appear to relate to the images of teenagers, the vast majority of sites are related to what appears to be legal young-adult pornography. Some sites are unrelated to any type of pornography.

These include businesses or institutes outside of Italy, and discussion forums, used by tens of thousands for all purposes. While it is possible these sites had an unauthorized user briefly upload an underage image or link to such an image, the continued presence of the sites on this list likely reflects the lack of any censorship notification or appeal mechanism.

The Australian government admitted during a Senate estimates hearing that fewer than one third of its May 2009 blacklist was related to images of those under the age of 18.

During 2008, the government of Thailand added over 1100 pages to its censorship blacklist for “lese majeste” (criticizing the royal family).

Both the Australian and Thai blacklists have been going for a longer than the Italian system and are possibly substantially more corrupt as a result.

We checked the Italian censorship system against the top 1,000,000 most popular Internet domains (as measured by Alexa.com in November, 2008), together with selected blacklists from other countries to discover a portion of those sites censored by Italy. Botique sites and sites only recently popular do not appear in our list due to limitations in our methodology. That said, our list represents an accurate, current subset of the full list.

In Italy, blocking of content is done through DNS servers – when request for blocked site is made, user is redirected to IP 212.48.170.80 instead of original address. Two nameservers involved in the blocking are 212.48.160.5 and 212.48.160.6.

The list can be reproduced by using the Unix “dig” utility, using a command such as “dig @212.48.160.6 -f list +noall +answer” where “list” is a file containing list of domains to be checked (one per line). We then search for results which lead to IP 212.48.170.80, the site which displays the “censorship page”. This is a universal method, which can be applied to all DNS based blocking systems.

A hyperlinked version of the list follows for easy assessment.

Index on Censorship » Criminal minded

17Feb09 – 15:17

The Italian government is attempting to make web-based dissent a crime, says Cecilia Anesi

A new bill has come before the Senate, giving the interior ministry the power to order Internet providers to remove criminal content within 24 hours or face a fine of up to 250,000 euros.

This is not something happening in China or in Burma, but rather in Italy, a member of the European Union. Senator Gianpiero D’Alia introduced the measure after the Italian press reported on the existence of Facebook fan groups for convicted Corleone-born Mafia bosses Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, who have been convicted of dozens of homicides and are serving multiple life sentences in prison.

After Facebook expressed its concern about Italy’s proposed law to force Internet providers to block access to websites that incite or justify criminal behaviour, D’Alia replied that the aim is not to block sites like Facebook or YouTube in their entirety if they contain criminal content. Rather, the senator explained, the law is intended to force them to remove individual pages or groups.

However, the text of the bill is misleading, as it does not distinguish between blocking pages and entire websites. This makes the law extremely flawed, as Marco Pancini, the European Public Policy Counsel for Google, which owns YouTube, has said. Internet providers are not able to eliminate single elements from websites, and this means blocking entire platforms in a situation where Internet providers themselves are not left with any choice but to respect orders for the removal of an unlawful site.
(more…)

IT – Italy police warn of Skype threat: “(BBC)
Criminals in Italy are increasingly making phone calls over the internet in order to avoid getting caught through mobile phone intercepts, police say.
Officers in Milan say organised crime, arms and drugs traffickers, and prostitution rings are turning to Skype in order to frustrate investigators. The police say Skype’s encryption system is a secret which the company refuses to share with the authorities.”

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

Bloomberg.com: Facebook Says Italy’s Plan to Block Web Content Goes Too Far

Last Updated: February 12, 2009 08:43 EST
By Steve Scherer and Giovanni Salzano

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) — Facebook Inc., the world’s largest social-networking site, said that it is concerned about Italy’s proposed law to force Internet providers to block access to Web sites that incite or justify criminal behavior.

‘We have not seen the language of the bill, but reports about it concern us,’ said Debbie Frost, a Facebook spokeswoman, in an e-mail. The legislation is ‘akin to shutting down the country’s entire railroad network because of some objectionable graffiti in one train station.’

The bill, passed in the Senate last week, would give the Interior Ministry the power to order Internet providers including Fastweb SpA, Telecom Italia SpA or Tiscali SpA to remove criminal content within 24 hours or face a fine as high as 250,000 euros ($320,850). Prosecutors would have to verify criminal content before the ministry can act, according to the bill.

Italian Senator Gianpiero D’Alia introduced the measure after the Italian press, including the country’s biggest newspaper Corriere della Sera, reported that there were fan groups on Facebook for convicted Corleone-born mafia bosses Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, who have been convicted of dozens of homicides and are serving multiple life prison sentences.

‘We take content that incites violence very seriously and we will work quickly to remove it,’ Frost said. ‘For every piece of controversial content posted to Facebook there are literally thousands of positive interactions fostering communication, fellowship, and commerce.’

Sainthood for a Murderer

While a fan group invoking ‘sainthood’ for Provenzano — with 433 members — was still posted today, Facebook also has a group hailing as heroes Palermo prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who were assassinated on the orders of Riina after successfully prosecuting hundreds of mobsters. That group has 369,463 fans.

The aim isn’t to block sites like Facebook or YouTube totally if they contain criminal content, D’Alia said yesterday in an interview. Instead, the law is intended to force them to remove individual pages or groups, the senator said. The language of the bill itself doesn’t distinguish between blacking out pages or entire Web sites.

The legislation is flawed because Internet providers aren’t able to eliminate single elements from Web sites, Marco Pancini, European Public Policy Counsel for Google Inc., which owns YouTube, said yesterday in an interview. That will lead to the blocking of entire platforms if the law is passed, Pancini said.

Mediaset, YouTube

YouTube has the ability to eliminate potentially criminal or offensive material, Pancini said, adding that laws regulating criminal content in Italy already exist. An April 2003 law says that material must be removed immediately once a Web site is informed of illicit material in its domain.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose allies in the Senate helped pass the measure, owns Mediaset SpA, the country’s largest private broadcaster. Mediaset in July said it sued YouTube and Google for illegally distributing the television company’s content, seeking ‘at least’ 500 million euros in damages.

Berlusconi has campaigned every weekend for the last month for his candidate, Ugo Cappellacci, against rival Renato Soru in the elections for governor of the island of Sardinia, which are scheduled to be held on Feb. 15 and 16. Soru is the founder and owner of 17.7 percent — through a blind trust — of Internet- service provider Tiscali.

The Internet legislation was inserted as an amendment to a bill aimed at cracking down on crime that the Senate passed on Feb. 5. The measure still must pass in the Chamber of Deputies without being changed to become law.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Scherer in Rome at scherer@bloomberg.net.

Google on trial over Italian ‘defamation’ vid: “

Execs face jail time for Turin teenagers’ taunt

The Privacy Trial of the Century is already waving jail time at three current Google execs and its former chief financial officer. And now there’s an added complaint against the company itself.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Post from: TorrentFreak

Italy to Follow French 3 Strikes Model for P2P

In 2003, Silvio Berlusconi’s government passed some of the most aggressive copyright laws in Europe, but ultimately the authorities didn’t give them the support demanded by the entertainment industries. Then in January 2007, Rome’s top criminal court announced that downloading films, music or software from the Internet should not be considered a crime if done for no profit, backing the likes of the IFPI and MPAA into a corner with fewer options.

Today, in 2009, the situation is moving quickly. In common with situations in many countries around the world, the entertainment industries have all but given up chasing down individual file-sharers, declaring that their new focus will be on ISPs, who they will pressure to clamp down on pirates on their behalf.

In October 2008 a technical roundtable got underway in Italy which promoted collaboration between the music, movie and ISPs. In basic terms, in part it was a discussion about the mechanics of implementing a ‘3 strikes’ or ‘graduated response’ to deal with piracy on P2P networks.

France has one of the toughest approaches to the ‘problem’ in Europe, so it will be of concern to many Italian citizens that their country appears to be taking the lead from Sarkozy’s vision of copyright enforcement.

According to a THR report, yesterday Italy’s Ministry of Culture signed an agreement with French officials to cooperate on anti-piracy issues. Furthermore, in an indication of how Italy sees its legislation progressing in the future, Minister of Culture Sandro Bondi said that Italian laws will ‘follow the French model’ in providing strict protection and controls for copyright works.

As we previously reported, plans for a ‘3 strikes’ regime had already been touted in Italy by the movie industry during meetings in Venice, with the MPAA’s President Robert Pisano stating: ‘Maybe the first couple of times they get a warning e-mail, then perhaps the speed on their account is reduced, and if they keep doing it then maybe their account is closed.’

With this announcement that Italy will follow the ‘French model’ and Sandro Bondi previously going on record saying that the fight against piracy is a priority for the government, it looks like the entertainment industries are getting closer to their aims, not just in Italy but in countries around Europe, and others across the world.

Berlusconi plans to use G8 presidency to ‘regulate the internet’: “

Forza Italia?

Italian president and media baron Silvio Berlusconi said today that he would use his country’s imminent presidency of the G8 group to push for an international agreement to ‘regulate the internet’.…

“

(Via The Register – Comms.)

Facebook Pulls Italian Neo-Nazi Pages After Outcry: “Facebook removed several pages from its site used by Italian neo-Nazis to incite violence after European politicians accused the Internet social networking site of allowing a platform to racists.

(Via NYT > Technology.)

Post from: TorrentFreak

Court Deems Pirate Bay Block to be Illegal: “

This August The Pirate Bay was ‘censored’ in Italy following a decree from a public prosecutor. The Pirate Bay appealed the block and eventually won the court case. Earlier this week the Court of Bergamo detailed its decision, and ruled that no foreign website can be censored for alleged copyright infringement.

Two months ago, following an order from an Italian prosecutor, ISPs started to prevent their customers from accessing the Pirate Bay. The administrators of the popular BitTorrent tracker were accused of making copyrighted material available on the Internet for commercial purposes.

Of course, the Pirate Bay team didn’t agree, and responded in true Pirate Bay style. ‘We’re quite used to fascist countries not allowing freedom of speech. A lot of smaller nations that have dictators decide to block our site since we can help spread information that could be harmful to the dictators,’ Sunde wrote in a blog entry.

The BitTorrent tracker was not going down without a fight, and later announced that it would appeal the decision in court, which they won. The block was lifted and ISPs could again grant their users access to the most frequently used BitTorrent tracker on the Internet.

The Court of Bergamo decided that this block was unlawful, and earlier this week they explained why. According to the court statement (Italian), no criminal court is allowed to issue an order to ISPs to block traffic to a foreign website, based on alleged copyright infringement. Italian law implements an European Directive, 2000/31 CE, which this means that this ruling should be valid in other European countries as well.

‘Under Italian law, this is possible only for child porn and for unauthorized gambling, but there is no such provision for copyright infringement,’ Pirate Bay’s lawyers Giovanni Battista Gallus and Francesco Micozzi explained to TorrentFreak.

‘We have to make sure that no legislative bill promoting such filtering provisions will be passed in the future. At the European level, many authorities pointed out the need to find a balance between the enforcement of alleged copyright infringements, users’ rights, and privacy issues.’

In hindsight, the block only helped the Pirate Bay to grow even further. The case generated a lot of free promotion, and the number of visitors from Italy increased by 5 percent. Not exactly the outcome IFPI had hoped for.

(Via TorrentFreak.)