The International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry has warned that a new Italian law passed last week will jeopardise attempts to combat music piracy in Italy, and will put the country out of line with international rules on intellectual property. As the legislation goes to the country's Senate for final approval, industry lobbyists are urging politicians to reconsider.
The legislation, called the Ex-Cirielli law, is concerned with how quickly criminal cases pending trial are automatically dismissed. The change would see the maximum period for cases to get to court cut from seven and a half to six years. This is a problem for those dealing with anti-music piracy cases which, as a general rule, seem to take a lot longer than six years to get to court. The change would mean of the 471 music piracy cases that were pending in 2004, 382 would have been dismissed.
IFPI chairman John Kennedy told reporters last week: "The Ex-Cirielli law deals a huge blow to the Italian music industry and to all IP industries in the country. This law totally undermines our ability to fight piracy in a nation with one of the highest rates of piracy in the developed world". Never one to sensationalise an issue, he continued: "This bill will erode investment in music, encourage organised crime, fuel corruption and cost the Italian government tens of millions of euros in lost revenue. It will bring Italy out of line with other European nations and put it firmly on the map as a pirate music market."
Enzo Mazza of the Federation Of The Italian Music Industry added: "This is an important setback in Italy's fight to tackle its longstanding piracy problems. It now seems ironic that we were the first country in Europe to introduce a law imposing fines for the purchase of counterfeit products. In addition, we strengthened the law against piracy in 2000 as well as adopting the Copyright Directive in 2002 and passing a new law, the Urbani decree, to help us combat online piracy. The new bill reverses the steady progress the Italian authorities have made through those measures. The new bill will turn into a general amnesty for the cases pending in the Italian Courts and will seriously impede any future anti-piracy criminal activity."