Category Archives: Law: Free Speech

Beppe Grillo — a writer who is new to me — warns of The Levi-Prodi law and the end of the Internet:

Ricardo Franco Levi, Prodi's right hand man, undersecretary to the President of the Council, has written the text to put a stopper in the mouth of the Internet. The draft law was approved by the Council of Ministers on 12 October. No Minister dissociated themselves from it. On gagging information, very quietly, these are all in agreement.

The Levi-Prodi law lays out that anyone with a blog or a website has to register it with the ROC, a register of the Communications Authority, produce certificates, pay a tax, even if they provide information without any intention to make money.

As Grillo writes, the law, were it to be passed by the Italian Parliament, would set up conditions so onerous that most bloggers would just shut down.

I have some doubts that such a rule would be consistent with either Italy's obligations to the EU or especially to the ECHR, but I don't know either body of law well enough to be sure.

Maybe Robert Waldmann knows more about the Italian politics behind this, and whether the bill has any realistic prospects of enactment?

Addendum: Not that Wikipedia is the most reliable source, but this entry for Beppe Grillo is certainly colorful.

Leaving bad enough alone, Swiss Bank Drops WikiLeaks Case.

Here's a link to the dismissal without prejudice. Which means that theoretically it could be re-filed. But it won't be.

(Not in the USA, anyway.)

Declan McCullagh has a helpful account of the mood in Judge White’s courtroom the other day. See Judge: Wikileaks gets its domain name back.

The NYT has a good summary at Judge Reverses His Order Disabling Web Site, but the headline is a bit misleading. In fact the judge didn't just vacate the TRO against Dynadot, as the full text of the order makes clear, he vacated both orders.

It's no so much a ruling on the merits as a recognition that there are substantial First Amendment issues, a real question as to whether the court has jurisdiction over Wikileaks if it is based outside the US, and that the order wasn't working anyway.

TROs and injunctions were part of the equity jurisdictions of courts (we've merged law and equity in the US, but the sources still matter sometimes). The court doesn't quote it, but there's an old maxim that “equity will not do a useless thing”. As much as anything, that, plus an excellent campaign of judicial education by EFF and the ACLU, explains the outcome.

Tynan on Technology (beta), Bank Julius Baer emerges from hibernation, issues official statement (which Tynan kindly deconstructs for us).

Meanwhile, the next hearing is tomorrow.