----- Original Message ----- From: "Alessandro Rubini" rubini@gnu.org To: discussion@fsfeurope.org Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2001 1:27 PM Subject: Re: forwarding of e-mails not illegal after all... (fwd) ...
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 seems to me that the law itself is inadequate. Applicants of the law only interpret it, unfortunately often more according to the word than according to the intent. What is therefore the right entity or person to contact in order fo facilitate a change or even cancellation of this law? Ultimately it is up to politicians to make or change laws, but I do not know what the exact process for this is in Italy. The objective is to get the people who have the power to change laws, to understand the consequences of this law, and hopefully to get them to change it.
In the meantime it might be possible to get a judge to issue an injunction against the law, because it poses an undue burden on a certain group of professionals, and obviously should not be used on free software, since that cannot possibly be the INTENT of the law (at least not from the perspective of the politicians - the lobbying industry obviously would like to see it that way). Again I have no idea if such a thing is even possible in Italy.
I heard about a similarly injust copyright money collection in Germany. There is a "tax" (I forgot the name) on each and every data carrier (empty) which goes to a list of authors. Since free software authors are certainly not on this list, I must pay the musik industry money, to put Linux on a CDR, or even have to pay them money if I use the medium for software I wrote myself! Fortunately the German law does not require any registration and doesn't drive any software seller into bankruptcy (Imagine having to put 4400 stamps for the 4400 software packages in GNU/Debian 2.2. on the set of diskettes! - p.s. how much does it cost?)
This is actually an opportunity to get free software to some level of recognition by the lawmakers. I think it is important that they begin to understand that free software is an invaluable asset for the Society at large, and should not be jeopardized by the aggressive actions of the established companies. This law is undemocratic, since it favors a rich minority (the large established software companies) against the interests of the small and many (just about anyone else who tries to make money with software in Italy).
- Josef