Andre Yoskowitz
2 Feb 2008 16:57
It seems that Italian parliament has inadvertently legalized some music sharing over P2P networks.
The new copyright law, which was passed by both houses of the parliament allows Italians to share all the music they want over the internet as long as it is "noncommercial" and the music is "degraded" in terms of quality.
The original piece, printed in the Italian newspaper la Republica quotes Italian copyright attorney Andrea Monti as saying that "whoever authored the law failed to take into account that the word 'degraded' has a 'very precise meaning'." Currently, music sold on all major legal alternatives is degraded, usually to 192kbps MP3 or 128kbps AAC. The new law means that Italian music fans will be able to share their music libraries over P2P networks as long as it is not lossless.
Despite the fact that the law limits such sharing to "educational or scientific" use, Monti feels it will make prosecuting P2P users more difficult.
If Italian lawmakers decide that the new law is not such a good idea they would have to go through all the process of passing another law. The current legislation cannot be altered "needing only publication in the Official Journal before becoming law."