Chicken Yoghurt is an otherwise intelligent and erudite man, which makes
some of his blind spots a little unfathomable:
I have say that personally, it’s always mystified me why people get so steamed up over the issue of Europe. The non-impact of the issue on my day-to-day life and habits is profound.
How about
this one for starters, Justin:
Ricardo Franco Levi, Prodi’s right hand man , undersecretary to the President of the Council, has written the text to put a stopper in the mouth of the Internet. The draft law was approved by the Council of Ministers on 12 October. No Minister dissociated themselves from it. On gagging information, very quietly, these are all in agreement.
The Levi-Prodi law lays out that anyone with a blog or a website has to register it with the ROC, a register of the Communications Authority, produce certificates, pay a tax, even if they provide information without any intention to make money.
Links to the pdf are at
beppegrillo’s site. H/T
Ian P
Well, how about that? Parallel posting! Great minds or what?!
ReplyDeleteHat tip, ANONYMOUS, surely!
ReplyDeleteOne can hardly believe this. I'd say it was a trial balloon but it's pretty detailed for that.
ReplyDeleteWhat if my site is hosted in the US, which it is?
ReplyDeleteKarl Krauss would probably say:
ReplyDelete"Where the sun of wisdom is sinking deepest, even dwarfs are casting gigantic shades."
Let's challenge the "dwarfs"!
It's a blow, for sure. But I get the impression that Council of Ministers here refers to the Italian cabinet, not the EU-wide body of the same name. Prodi is no longer an EU functionary, so don't let that sidetrack you, either. For now, this remains a draft Italian law.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, none the less, it's a blow. And if they get away with it in Italy, what money on someone trying it here? If I was going to be really paranoid, what's the betting that in fact it will be introduced via Brussels, just as UK officials have done with the "demand" for biometric passports in order to ease the way for ID cards in the UK.
Bummer
ReplyDeleteWolfie - as JMB says, it's a trial balloon for the EU but do you think similar has not been mooted in the U.S.? I have to find the links but not long ago there was a proposal shown on someone's blog about the two tier system in the States - Tim Almond's blog? Can't remember.
ReplyDeleteIan, your stance on the EU does you credit but Council of Ministers is in thrall to EU bidding anyway. Italy and all nations adopting the Euro are in varying degrees of thrall to the EU monster.
Does anyone have an English translation of that draft? You'll forgive me if I don't fancy taking Beppe Grillo at his word.
ReplyDeleteEr, this is a proposed Italian law, not one for the EU.
ReplyDeleteI think it might have been the 'Council of Ministers' rather than 'Cabinet of Ministers' that caused the confusion.
As you were, everybody.
Justin, I haven't got time to do a complete English translation, but I have read the Italian draft law and it is as Grillo says it is. However, there has this afternoon been an announcement by Levi to the effect that "private bloggers" will NOT be affected and this is to be clarified in an amendment tomorrow. As I have just said on my own blog, this still leaves room for doubt, for how are they going to define "private" blogs? But I feel better than I did yesterday!
ReplyDelete