Leonardo’s statement to a reporter:
The HADOPI law is an example of a problem that is real but ill-formulated and worse solved. the fact that immaterial goods can be manipulated with greater freedom does not imply that the laws that used to guarantee the property rights of those goods should be cancelled, but only updated to adjust their use to the new freedom.
It iss just ironical that the country that two centuries ago has generated the “Declaration of the rights of Man and Citizen”, source of so many changes to the history of mankind, has become the vanguard of a crusade to suppress those rights in the new society that rightly expects to enjoy the new rights made possible by the new freedom.
The problem with HADOPI is that not only will the objective not be reached, but the basis of society will be damaged. The very economic interests that the law purports to support will be damaged. The enjoyment of the new freedom will be prevented,
all this to preserve obsolete business models.
Tag: HADOPI
Leonardo is upset by approval of HADOPI, 2009/06/13
The French Sénat finally approves the so-called HADOPI (Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Œuvres et la Protection des droits sur Internet) law. Leonardo is particularly upset by it not so much because an internet user who has been caught three times illegally handling copyrighted content sees his internet connection severed, but because someone must have access to the content of the private communication of the internet user to make those assessments.
Leonardo fears that something similar to the HADOPI law will also be adopted in Italy. However, unlike the French one, the Italian Constitution (Art. 15) is clear about personal communication
“La libertà e la segretezza della corrispondenza e di ogni altra forma di comunicazione sono inviolabili. La loro limitazione può avvenire soltanto per atto motivato dell’autorità giudiziaria con le garanzie stabilite dalla legge”.
(Freedom and privacy of correspondence and of any other form of communication are inviolable. Their limitation can only happen by a motivated deliberation of judiciary authority with the guarantees established by law).
The problem with the HADOPI law is that its advocates are right in claiming there is a problem, but wrong with the solution they have come up with. Those opposing it are right on the specifics of the law but wrong because for too many years they have left rights holders alone with their problems and often derided them as “dinosaurs incapable to adapt to the digital age” (a critique that is partly true) while their assets were being looted.
Leonardo prides himself to have been among those who have developed the Digital Media in Italia (dmin.it) proposal, the only comprehensive fully elaborated proposal that takes into account the needs of all stakeholders to overcome the impasse the HADOPI law wrongly addresses.