Online freedom

Italian free speech groups have claimed victory after leading a movement against a piece of legislation the national press dubbed the "Italian SOPA" – a reference to the Stop Online Piracy Act which came to a contentious halt in the U.S. Senate late last month.

Like its counterpart across the Atlantic, the Italian legislation would have made Internet servers around the world responsible for all the content they hosted. Further, the Italian proposal would have broadened the range of groups that could notify servers of copyright infringements and thereby make them susceptible to lawsuits.

The move also comes at a time when many European governments are facing protests over their signing of a related international treaty, known as ACTA.

But last week, Italian free speech groups including Agora Digitale led a charge against the legislation, known as Amendment 18. Parties from across Italy's political spectrum proposed amendments of their own to suppress the "Italian SOPA." The amendments passed Thursday with 365 votes in the lower House of Deputies, 57 against, and 14 abstentions.

"It's definitely a victory," Guiglielmo Troiano, a lawyer for Agora Digitale, told Deutsche Welle. "Thanks to the press conference we organized, there was the cohesion necessary among all political parties, with the exception of the Northern League, to vote against the amendment."

Agora Digitale, another free speech group, and two libertarian parties organized the press conference to mobilize Italian politicians after Giovanni Fava, a conservative politician of the Northern League party proposed Amendment 18 to a parliamentary commission on January 25.

Disputed ramifications

The legislation would have changed the language in the Italian version of a European Commission directive on digital rights and e-commerce from 2003. Among other passages, it would have changed the groups who can raise copyright complaints against servers from "competent authorities" to "interested parties."

"It's absolutely a free speech issue," Troiano said, "because the law would inhibit people from uploading content for fear of being persecuted. The same goes for service providers. A lot of expression would be cut off from the start."

However, Fava, who is also head of a parliamentary inquest into contraband and piracy, said critics took his amendment out of context.

"I never wanted to block ideas and opinions," he told Deutsche Welle. "That was never my intention. All I did was carry out my task as president of the commission, which was to protect property and to protect legality."

Not least of Fava's critics was the hacker group Anonymous, who he said shut down his personal website for several hours late last month.

More reforms

Both sides are working on their next steps. Troiano said Agora Digitale is seeking to end a monopoly held by the Italian Society of Authors and Editors on how people pay for copyrights in the country.

Meanwhile, Fava said Italian telecom regulator AGCOM is working on e-commerce regulations that will not infringe on free speech. He added he can see a bright side to his amendment's failure.

"I'm not particularly disappointed the amendment was rejected," he said. "I am happy that this subject, which affects millions of people, families and businesses, has finally entered our country's political agenda."

ACTA action

The "Italian" or "tri-colored SOPA" came to Italy's parliament just as protests against the international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) reached fever pitch in Poland. Over the weekend, Polish President Donald Tusk said his government was halting the ratification process.

Italy was one of 22 European countries that recently signed ACTA. While several signatories are considering following Poland's decision to halt the ratification process, debate on the agreement is scheduled to continue this June.

Viktor Mayer-Schoenberg, a professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, said there has always been a peculiar dynamic between international agreements like ACTA and national legislation.

"What we see is the rise of national debates about the importance of ownership and control of information flows," he told Deutsche Welle. "The discourse is picking up not so much on the European level as the national level."

Author: Shant Shahrigian, Milan, Italy
Editor: Cyrus Farivar