The Italian Senate has passed the so called Ex-Cirielli Bill which, the music industry claims, will make it harder to fight music piracy in the country because of the time involved in putting together legal action against those who manufacture pirated CDs.
As previously reported, the new law is concerned with how quickly criminal cases pending trial are automatically dismissed. The change will see the maximum period allowed 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 - especially in Italy. The change would mean of the 471 music piracy cases that were pending in 2004, 382 would have been dismissed.
But despite lobbying by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and other trade associations representing the IP industry, the Italian Senate passed the law on Tuesday. It should now be signed into Italian law by the president before the end of the year.
Enzo Mazza, president of the Federation Of The Italian Music Industry said that the new law marked "the end of Italy's war on music piracy". IFPI chair John Kennedy, meanwhile, stressed to Billboard that the new law was primarily a problem because Italy's chaotic legal system makes cases against music pirates so complicated and time consuming. He told Billboard: "If the wheels of justice were working more efficiently and more smoothly, this law would have less impact on us. It's because the process is so slow and so painful that this new law has such an impact."