With six suppressive amendments the Italian Chamber of Deputies has eliminated from the 2011 Community Law the amendment that the press had labelled as the Italian SOPA.
The proposed legislation, presented by The Northern League MP Fava, stated that any interested party could request hosting service providers to remove any content simply by claiming it to be illegal, without any investigation by the Judicial or Administrative Authority being required and that should the provider fail to comply with the request it could be held responsible .
The Italian SOPA has been revoked by the Chamber with the approval of six identical all party amendments. The votes were 365 in favour, 57 against and 14 abstentions.
Great satisfaction was expressed by the Italian associations supporting digital rights for citizens particularly by Agorà Digitale, one of the prime movers in the protest against MP Fava’s amendment. Commenting on the issue on his association’s blog the Agorà Digitale President Luca Nicotra remarked that “First of all today’s vote confirms the new, important and effective possibilities of mobilization that the Internet offers to citizens, who are more determined than ever to defend their rights interacting with and when necessary directly challenging their parliamentary representatives. It is also a sign that there is a small all party group of MPs determined to defend the values of an open and free Internet”.
The suppression of Fava’s amendment has, however, been received with some disappointment by the major representatives of the Italian entertainment industry. Marco Polillo, President of Confiindustria Cultura Italia, (the Italian Industrial Association for Culture) has spoken of a “missed opportunity to fight piracy”, while the President of FIMI, (the Italian Music Industry Federation), Enzo Mazza, has stressed that the rejection of the Italian SOPA is “a victory for Megaupload and The Pirate Bay”.
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