MP3 is a lossy format - meaning you lose quality from the original. Because of that fact, wording in a recently passed Italian law may have just made trading MP3 files legal.Roughly translated from Italian, the law states that music or images that are at "degraded or low resolution" can be distributed on the Internet "for scientific or educational use, and only when such use is not for profit."
This is what happens when non-techies write laws about technology. Anyone remember Ted Stevens and the "tubes?" I still love the way The Daily Show treated that. In this case, someone didn't realized that since a lossy format degrades the file from the original, this would technically mean that an MP3 file, though degraded in such a way that the untrained ear would likely not notice it, would be covered by this new law.
A literal interpretation of the law could make a forum (on say USENET) discussing the music of an artist a permissible use. Tons of people could suddenly be studying the complexities of the music of U2 via P2P!
Anyway, the law has already passed through the both the Italian Chamber of Deputies and Senate. All that needs happen now is it needs to be published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale, the official newspaper of the government. In Italy a law must be published in the Gazzeta Ufficiale before it takes effect.
I see a possible loophole here.
At any rate, officials, trying to cover their mistake, have said that the Italian government will enact strict policies to determine who can qualify for "scientific or educational use," but like I said, I can see a number of Italians suddenly becoming quite studious.
0 comments:
Post a Comment