p2pnet - rss feed: Photo ID in Italy’s Net cafes
p2p news / p2pnet:- Maurizio Savoni says he’s closing his Rome Internet cafe because he doesn’t want to be a "cop" anymore.
“After Italy passed a new antiterrorism package in July, authorities ordered managers offering public communications services, like Mr. Savoni,to make passport photocopies of every customer seeking to use the Internet, phone, or fax,” says the Christian Science Monitor.
"This new law creates a heavy atmosphere," says Savoni, his desk cluttered with passport photocopies. He is visibly irritated, as he proceeds to halt clients at the door for their ID.”
The law came in only weeks of the London terror bombings this summer and is, “part of the most extensive antiterror package introduced in Italy since 9/11 and the country’s subsequent support of the Iraq war,” says the CSM.
“Though the legislation also includes measures to heighten transportation security, permit DNA collection, and facilitate the detention or deportation of suspects, average Italians are feeling its effect mainly in Internet cafes.”
Savoni says it’s a control system like America’s Patriot Act but, “Despite the inconvenience, most Italians seem relatively unfazed by the law,” adds the story.
"If I am not doing anything wrong, fundamentally nothing is going to happen to me," says Mauro Pallotta, a young artist, after checking his e-mail at Savoni’s cafe.”
Shades of Communist China, not to mention the US.
(Thanks, William)
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See:-
Christian Science Monitor - Want to check your e-mail in Italy? Bring your passport, October 4, 2005
October 6th, 2005 at 2:53 am
If I am not doing anything wrong, fundamentally nothing is going to happen to me,” says Mauro Pallotta, a young artist, after checking his e-mail at Savoni’s cafe.”
What’s his email? I’ll send him some spam about bomb-making, and we’ll see how long it takes him to wind up in a prison, without being charged and with no prospect of a trial, merely on suspicion of being a terrorist. That he didn’t ask for the material would probably be irrelevant, he’d be in possession of it and that’s all that would matter. Even deleting the email as soon as he got it might not help, if it’s still sitting on the isp’s email server with him listed as the recipient.
Not to mention the fact that just because nothing you’re doing today is illegal, doesn’t mean the govt can’t make it illegal tomorrow and backdate it to yesterday.