The proposed code of conduct for Blogs, outlined by wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Internet 2.0 guru Tim O’Reilly has generated little interest in the media here in Italy thus far.

This strikes me as strange, given the general preoccupation with privacy, and the tendency of the news here to jump on every possible scandalous video posted on youtube of late.

In any case, perusing the code of conduct designed to bring some standard of civility to the blogosphere I noted with interest some of the definitions for ‘unacceptable content’:

We define unacceptable content as anything included or linked to that:
– is being used to abuse, harass, stalk, or threaten others
– is libelous, knowingly false, ad-hominem, or misrepresents another person,
– infringes upon a copyright or trademark[my emphasis]
– violates an obligation of confidentiality
– violates the privacy of others

Interesting that a code of conduct seemingly conceived as a reaction to the highly publicised death threats received by blogger Kathy Sierra, should include a clause for protecting intellectual property rights.

We’ll wait to see whether this particularly American form of ‘civility’ takes hold in the Italian blogosphere. Here’s to mom’s apple pie, and Freedom of speech – as long as it’s deemed acceptable and more importantly doesn’t infringe copyright…