Nel Blu
Domenico Modugno’s worldwide hit, “Volare,” was released in 1958
The Italian Supreme Court – the “Corte di Cassazione” – has today determined that downloading or making available for download copyrighted songs and films is not a crime so long as it is not done for profit.
Italy is not at all a lesser market for these things and the RIAA and the film industry are certainly going to go bananas. In another political moment they might think about, ah, “lobbying” – in this context that is the polite word – malleable members of the Italian Parliament to pass a new and probably equally indefensible law to restart – “daccapo,” “from the top” – the whole process of attempting to scare the public away from downloading, but this is probably not in the cards for the moment.
For one, the shaky Center-Left government presently in power deeply believes it is loved by the young and will do nothing to disturb its somewhat illusory view of its own youthful trendiness. Beyond that, even if a few smaller parties might be bought – er, “brought” – around, the coalition already has enough troubles without seeking out still another divisive and unpopular issue.
This means the big entertainment cartels will probably have to attempt to work on Italy at the European level, in Brussels. No doubt the effort will be made, but in this too it is not the best moment to act.
Brussels is very well acquainted with Mr Romano Prodi, who served as President of the European Commission before returning to Italy for a role as figure-head Prime Minister. And this is a good case of familiarity breeding contempt… But in part precisely for that reason, Italy has been rather routinely getting screwed lately in its EEC relations. Laying any more crap on the country for something as futile as trying to get downloaded mp3’s and such back in the box is probably not going to be a high priority anytime soon.
The Economist Intelligence Unit recently had occasion to point out – (here) – that, of all the OECD and other main Western countries, only Italy cannot be considered a “full” democracy and the EIU league table places the country in the “flawed” group along with South Korea, Estonia, India, Botswana and a number of other places where the popular will does not necessarily dominate the political process. The Italians, to the degree they paid any attention, were mildly offended by this, though it is probably an appropriate diagnosis.
Italy believes it is a democracy because it is certainly not a tyranny. The average Italian is much freer in terms of being able to do what he or she wants than is the average American, and the whole question of downloaded music is an excellent case in point. The interesting thing is that these liberties have not been obtained through the workings of democracy so much as through confusion, central government incompetence and the self-cancelling aspect of countervailing lobbies each destroying the other’s influence.
What with the recent suspension in the American Republic of the Habeus Corpus Act – see (here) – and other freedoms deriving from the Bill of Rights, concerned persons there might want to study with care the methods the Italians have employed to hamstring their own defective democracy.
Oh, since we are sort of on the theme of “Italian” music today, clicking (here) will download the lyrics from Rosemary Clooney’s 1954 hit, “Mambo Italiano.” We feel these should be preserved from nuclear and other possible universal disaster by diffusing them as widely as possible.