This move is obviously motivated by politics and business. Berlusconi basically runs Italy like a corporation that he owns, and since he controls 90% of Italian media his interests don't align with sites such as youtube, Reddit, Digg, etc. that pose a threat to his business. What he's doing is what any (heartless..) savvy businessman would do: Cut out the competition. Of course this is absolutely terrible for Italian democracy and free speech.<p>It's nothing personal - only business.
It's simple, really. Italy profits from being connected to the internet more than it costs them, so they'll do the right thing eventually.<p>This goes for any country that wants to control / regulate the internet that gets a substantial portion of their telecommunications via the net.<p>If Djibouti or Upper-Volta would decide to legalize stuff like this they could get away with it because the public outcry would be relatively small, if they do it in Italy then whichever political party was the one to make that decision will find themselves without any power at the next elections.<p>I would take this with a substantial grain of salt. Less than a week ago Italy's prime minister suggested that Israel should join the EU:<p><a href="http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=20492" rel="nofollow">http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=...</a><p>think of it as publicly funded entertainment.
I kind of wonder if Google might get fed up and ditch their Italian office. Recently I also read this attack piece in the Corriere della Sera, which is usually a reasonable paper:<p><a href="http://www.corriere.it/economia/10_gennaio_28/mucchetti_4de4be8a-0be8-11df-bc70-00144f02aabe.shtml" rel="nofollow">http://www.corriere.it/economia/10_gennaio_28/mucchetti_4de4...</a><p>Italian only, but basically the guy has it in for Google and the fact that they get paid in Ireland, in Europe, and thus avoid some of the fun and exciting Italian taxes and regulations, and thinks they should be subject to a number of inane rules that the local companies cooked up to split up the publishing market amongst themselves.