Over the last few days, the age-old debate on legislative initiatives on file sharing has been reopened by the authoritative statement of the Minister Roberto Maroni (which have been widely reported outside of national boundaries ), who has admitted using systems file sharing to download music from the Web and called for the passing of legislation currently in force .

Many have welcomed the stance taken by Maroni, high-ranking member of the Government, hoping that it may be the prelude of a new intervention of the legislator that - abandoning the repressive approach - provides for the legalization of non-commercial file sharing. For this I was glad to accept the invitation of Luca Nicotra (President of Digital Agora ) to be among the first signatories of an open letter to Hon. Maroni, to ask the Minister to move the (beautiful) words to subsequent regulatory action.

I report the text of the letter to which all can participate through the special web petition (at http://www.agoradigitale.org/letteramaroni ) or through the Facebook page dedicated ( http://www.facebook. com/pages/Maroni-legalizza-il-file-sharing/116962984983268 ).

(Image AKMA )

Hon Minister Roberto Maroni,

We read with interest the news report of his habit as any fan of music, download songs from the Internet.

As mentioned several times in the past had done, in two interviews, one published on April 9 by the weekly Panorama, and the other granted to Radio One on April 10, she has once again declared to be contrary to repressive approaches, such as the French disconnects from the internet so-called "pirates". She even suggests a way of collaboration between users and producers of entertainment content. She has also rightly emphasized that there is a difference between stealing and sharing, stressing that the use of file sharing networks is equivalent to "make a copy of a purchased CD and give it to others, something that normally happens when we buy a cd and make a copy for our friends. "
The Minister Giorgia Meloni in the past made ​​similar statements.

We appreciate the courage and sincerity of those who, like her, you take the political responsibility to tell the everyday life of what is happening in our country, millions of users have already chosen the tool for research and exchange of content that most interests them.

This phenomenon can not simply be dismissed as a crime, or worse "piracy".

However, your statements are supported by the results of hearings on digital piracy is not conducted for profit by the Italian Telecommunications (NRA), published a few weeks ago, which highlights how the piracy trade in large cases benefit from the market and how repressive measures against it are unnecessary and harmful.

Those who are fighting like us for the affirmation of individual liberties in the digital domain are not asking the institutions to give up its regulatory role, but to discuss possible reforms to manage the real situation, you show that it is familiar, by adopting appropriate measures.

As minister she can do much to draw the appropriate conclusions from what has sustained pubblicamete.

First, asking the abolition of the Municipal Act in so far as criminalizing file sharing by punishing criminally.

Second, promising to meet regulatory initiatives that are going in the direction indicated by you.

Even in parliament, were submitted proposed legislation to provide for the legalization of non-commercial file sharing, such as the one signed first Beltrandi Marco, which provides for a payment of a license by the user or the first to signing Roberto Cassinelli that broadens the spectrum of fair use.

To expose the contents of the proposals and introduce you to other activities in which we might be interested in attending a meeting to ask.

If you want to be a promoter of a legislative initiative, or read about it, we will be glad to put at your disposal the assistance of experts and research centers that could enrich the work and the debate on the issues that has been shown to take due consideration.

Some of your kind response, Kind regards

FIRST SIGNED:

• Ernesto Belisario, a lawyer and expert in new technologies law
• Sergio Bellucci, LAIT spa consultant, President Net Left
• Mark Beltrandi, radical deputy
• Rita Bernardini, radical deputy
• Paolo Brini, spokesman for the Movement org
• Renato Brunetti, president of Unidata
• Marco Cappato, the president of Agora Digital
• Alessandro Capriccioli, bloggers, board member of Digital Agora
• Roberto Cassinelli, deputy of the People of Freedom
• Mark Ciurcina, president of Free Software
• Juan Carlos De Martin, co-director of the Center NEXA - Politecnico di Torino
• Fiorello Cortiana, Share the Knowledge
• Arturo Di Corinto, journalist, president of Free Hardware Foundation
• Luigi Di Liberto, coordinator of the Movement org
• Diego Galli, head of Internet Radio Radical
• Giovanni Battista Gallus, a lawyer and expert in the new law
technologies
• Alessandro Gilioli, journalist and blogger
• Gualazzi Athos, president of the Pirate Party
• Julia Innocenzi, co-host and blogger Annozero
• Lorenzo Lipparini, board member of Digital Agora
• Flavia Marzano, President UnaRete
• Matthew Mecacci radical deputy
• Francesco Paolo Micozzi, lawyer and expert in new technologies law
• Luca Nicotra, secretary of the Digital Agora
• Marco Perduca, Senator radical
• Mark Pierani, Responsible Institutions Altroconsumo
• Mark Ricolfi, co-director of the Center NEXA - University of Turin
• Mark Scialdone, a lawyer and expert in new technologies law
• Guido Scorza, president of Institute for Policy Innovation
• Mario Staderini, secretary of the Italian Radicals
• Vincenzo Vita, a senator of the Democratic Party
• Vittorio Zambardino, journalist and blogger