From: "Stefano Maffulli" smaffulli@inwind.it
The Italian association SoftwareLibero.org sent an open letter to the SIAE asking to explain officially the contradicting law especially with the issues related to Free Software and Copylefted works. I think that only discussing with them (the SIAE) we can clear out what is the meaning of the law.
Unfortunately, I don't think the SIAE isn't the one which applies the law. It's an association of authors and publishers that has been elected by law as official representative of all authors. It is, therefore, a parasitic organization that raises money from all copyrighted work and distributes part of it to supposed authors (and uses most of it su keep itself alive).
While I think the open letter is a good initiative, SIAE people can't give the definite answer. The letter is good because it can publicly show that even the ones who collect money don't know why and when they collect it. It could show how crappy the law is, not how to behave to be good citizens.
This is only my personal opinion, I read the letter but didn't participate in the discussion that made it happen (well, I also talked with SIAE officiers and lawyers, and know how inadequate those officiers are).
/alessandro