Child Pornography And Computer Crime Still a Criminal Offense in Italy

Several misinformed Italian blogs are currently claiming that the Renzi-led government just passed a draft-legislative decree making child pornography and computer crimes no more a criminal offense.

This is not true because what the government actually did was setting the principle that as soon as a crime is punished with a jail term up to five years AND the judge thinks that the crime is of “minimum damage” then either the prosecution or the trial must end. To put it different: only “serious crimes” are going to be tried in court.

One may argue over the ethic or legal acceptance of the notion of “petty-vs-serious” difference (as Cicero use to said, what matters – and deserves the maximum punishment – is the act of killing, not the fact that you killed one man or hundred people) but this legislative decree only turns into a law what already happens on a daily basis in the Italian courts: a confession of failure, in other words.