A few alarm bells are starting to ring with the first usage of a controversial piece of legislation that allows the for take-down of websites in Italy
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140430/12380327080/italys-first-attempt-to-block-websites-with-no-judicial-review-reveals-how-dangerous-system-is.shtmlLate last year, we wrote about how Italy was about to change some of its copyright enforcement setup to give enforcement powers to regulators instead of the courts. That is, regulator AGCOM could now simply declare -- with no judicial review or due process -- that certain sites were infringing and then order ISPs to block access to those sites. While other Italian prosecutors have sought to do the same thing, AGCOM now has the official power to delete websites off the Italian internet if they so much claim they're somehow infringing.
Recently, AGCOM decided to exercise its new power, issuing its first administrative blocking injunction against a site -- meaning that ISPs in Italy need to block users from accessing the site. Now, it does appear that the site was linking and/or embedding certain films that may have been infringing. But there are still serious problems with the injunction.
A well reasoned article as usual from techdirt but whats more important to much of the public is the slowly but surely loss of rights when such stealthy legislation as this comes into play, poorly reasoned arbitrary decisions serve no one but the corrupt entities who would not be able to mount a proper and balanced case for their site banning activities in a real judicial court setting.
