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Italy looking to kill user-generated content sites

arstechnica.com

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Re: Italy looking to kill user-generated content sites

#11

Post by jacquesm »

protomyth wrote: post #8

Does Italy acting like an idiot affect startups in the rest of the EU?

In the EU Italy is not exactly first on the list of 'markets' that you think of when starting out.

First off, the UK & Germany, then France, Spain, Scandinavia, Benelux, then Italy, and Greece. Switzerland usually gets pulled in alongside Germany and France with the portion of the country that only speaks Italian to come along when Italy goes in, Austria usually around the time that Germany is done. That's simply a consequence of the amount of business done online and the size of the populations of those countries.

Former eastblock countries usually follow last, but there is a shift happening there, they definitely figure higher in the consciousness of start-ups today than they did even 3 years ago.

Re: Italy looking to kill user-generated content sites

#12

Post by protomyth »

jacquesm wrote: post #11
protomyth wrote: post #8

Does Italy acting like an idiot affect startups in the rest of the EU?

In the EU Italy is not exactly first on the list of 'markets' that you think of when starting out. First off, the UK & Germany, then France, Spain, Scandinavia, Benelux, then Italy, and Greece. Switzerland usually gets pulled in alongside Germany and France with the portion of the country that only speaks Italian to come along when Italy goes in, Austria usually around the time that Germany is done. That's simply a c…

I was wondering if a non-Italy EU startup could be caused problems by the Italian Gov?

Re: Italy looking to kill user-generated content sites

#14

Post by electromagnetic »

pwhelan wrote: post #4

Good luck with that Italian government.

Yeah, especially as online-publishing is a freedom of speech issue and unless Berlusconi rescinds Italy's membership in the European Union, he'd have to be able to prove that essentially banning access to free-speech online isn't a violation of freedom of speech European Court of Human Rights. Any judgement by the court is wholly binding on the member states and legally has to be complied with or they can ultimately be forced out of the EU, but would likely be subject to sanctions and receive no 'rebate' from the taxes their citizens pay to the EU.

Being forced out of the EU would mean all their citizens working in the EU, outside of Italy, could potentially lose employment immediately due to not having work visas. Every Italian citizen living in the EU would have 6-months to return to Italy, and by how most immigration policies work they would be unable to apply for a work visa or even citizenship within their country of occupation. The exact same would happen to any EU citizen living in Italy, which could potentially be devastating for the economy in Italy.

Re: Italy looking to kill user-generated content sites

#15

Post by sharpn »

protomyth wrote: post #12
jacquesm wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the EU Italy is not exactly first on the list of 'markets' that you think of when starting out. First off, the UK & Germany, then France, Spain, Scandinavia, Benelux, then Italy, and Greece. Switzerland usually gets pulled in alongside Germany and France with the portion of the country that only speaks Italian to come along when Italy goes in, Austria usually around the time that Germany is done. That's simply a c…

I was wondering if a non-Italy EU startup could be caused problems by the Italian Gov?

The short answer is no - unless they depend on Italian cusomers (or bank via Italy). The longer answer depends on Italy's relative sway with the EU versus your 'home' nation & the significance of what you're doing, but is a qualified 'no'.

Re: Italy looking to kill user-generated content sites

#16

Post by eagleal »

mixmax wrote: post #7

This move is obviously motivated by politics and business. Berlusconi basically runs Italy like a corporation that he owns, and since he controls 90% of Italian media his interests don't align with sites such as youtube, Reddit, Digg, etc. that pose a threat to his business. What he's doing is what any (heartless..) savvy businessman would do: Cut out the competition. Of course this is absolutely terrible for Italian…

And this could be the Berlusconi response to such claim:

"The left wing it's trying to ruin the country by make non-sense claims". If you watch the Italian television, you can see that he appends that sentence on every response.[Disclaimer: I'm not right/center/left/you-name-it winged]

Re: Italy looking to kill user-generated content sites

#17

Post by eagleal »

axod wrote: post #9
maurycy wrote: post #2

Let's ban this, let's outlaw that. I like it how govs have no basic clue about this Internet thing.

Controlling the masses communication has been something governments have always tried to do, they always will.

Similar to what's going on in China.

And on Italian News TVs there was NOT a word about this decree.

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