Internet companies voice alarm over law

The draft, due to be approved next month, would make Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) like Fastweb and Telecom Italia, and Web sites like
Google’s YouTube, responsible for monitoring TV content on their pages,
industry experts say.

It comes as Google’s YouTube unit is
engaged in a legal battle with Mediaset, controlled by Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi. Italy’s largest media group wants 500 million euros
in damages from YouTube for copyright infringement.

“As it is
written at the moment … the law would certainly help Mediaset in the
procedure it has open against Google,” Paolo Nuti, president of the
Italian Internet Providers Association, told reporters. However, he
said he did not think the law was written expressly for this purpose.

The
proposed regulations would make internet sites as liable as television
stations for their content and subject to hefty fines by the AGCOM
media watchdog, according to a 33-page draft.

“If this happens it would sweep away Internet 2.0,” Nuti said. “It would transform internet platforms into judges or tribunals.”

Italy’s
parliament, which is holding consultations with civil groups and
internet associations, is due to present a non-binding opinion to
Silvio Berlusconi’s government by early February. The draft decree only
requires presidential approval.

Raffaele Nardacchione,
director of the Asstel association of telecommunications providers
which represents ISPs like Fastweb and Tiscali, said the decree far
exceeded the terms of the original European directive by extending the
definition of audiovisual media to Internet firms and by tightening
copyright.

Marco Pancini, senior European public policy counsel
for Google, said that if the decree remained unchanged it would
materially affect the company’s business in Italy.

“The first
step is to discuss this with Italian authorities to try to find a
solution and we think this is do-able,” he told reporters. “The next
step, if the law stays as it is, is going to be to discuss this with
the European authorities.”

Commission could investigate
EU sources told reporters on Tuesday the Commission could open an investigation into the decree for infringing EU norms.

Even
the head of AGCOM, Corrado Calabro, told reporters on the sidelines of
a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday the decree should be revised because
it would “deform” the EU directive.

The draft legislation has
also raised criticism from freedom of speech groups like Italy’s
Article 21, which said in a statement the decree “deviously attacks the
freedom to operate on the Web” and would “block any possibility of
modern development of the country”.

Italy has one of the
lowest rates of ADSL Internet usage in western Europe, according to the
European Commission’s 2009 Information Society Report. E-commerce is
also struggling. Only around 10 percent of Italians buy online compared
with around 55 percent of Britons and Germans.

Industry officials warned the new decree would postpone the development of the web even further.

“Any
internet company will make investments where the legislative system is
economical and the opportunities for investment are greatest,” said
Nuti.