28 March 2012
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Italy: Big
Brother Awards 2006
The Italian Big Brother Awards for 2006 were awarded during a
ceremony in Florence on 20 May 2006 which focused on issues such
as the defence of intellectual property rights and the expanding
role of Trusted Computing technology, which is developing functions
that are deemed to be suited for "the creation of a platform
for pervasive technological control". The winners of awards
for undermining privacy were: Enzo Mazza from the Federazione
dell'Industria Musicale Italiana (Italian music industry federation),
for his role in pushing for ISPs to be obliged to become "sheriffs
of the web" to defend intellectual property rights, obliging
them to erase or prevent access to illegal contents, to inform
the authorities about these, and making them responsible for
illegal contents made available using their services.
The winner of the "lifetime menace" award was Mauro
Masi from the PM's office, for calling an end to the work of
the commission on authors' rights which was contemplating introducing
a distinction between serious and minor offences, so as to prevent
criminal proceedings being adopted against the latter. The awards
for "most invasive technology" and "worst private
company" went to Trusted Computing and the Trusted Computing
Group (TCG), with specific reference made to "remote attestation"
functions, and to the expansion of this technology as a "Little
Brother that is among us and growing quickly", and TCG criticised
for its "relentless activity for the establisment of a model
of pervasive techno-control aimed at the creation of DRM systems
that cannot be attacked".
The positive "Winston Smith - heroes of privacy" award
went to the "No 1984" campaign, for its work to spread
information about about the dangers and control purposes of the
Trusted Computing platform. Finally, the Italian data protection
ombudsman's authority was also handed an award ("worst public
body") for accepting new powers that it was granted to enter
private households to investigate data protection or privacy
breaches without a prior judicial warrant, or outside of the
framework of criminal investigations. The decision concerning
this award was justified on the basis that, in spite of more
serious breaches having been committed by other public bodies,
the new powers allow "fishing expeditions" in private
homes and are in direct opposition to the ombudsman office's
role in defence of privacy, conditions that "amplify"
their relevance.
Big Brother Awards 2006. Full account available (in Italian)
at: https://bba.winstonsmith.info/
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