Just when they thought they were a step closer to halting the sharing of music, Italy goes and screws things up.  The Italian parliament passed a new copyright law in both houses that would allow citizens to share noncommercial and degraded music over the internet freely.  But alas, it turns out all music sold on most download sites is degraded. MP3 and AAC files at 192kbps and 128kbps, respectively, fit in the downgraded category.

Though the law limits file sharing to “educational or scientific” use, there will be more difficulty in prosecuting those who use it for other purposes.  The law adds a broad definition of what is considered legal and illegal in this context.

Andrea Monte, who specialized in copyright law, states that the legislature “does not know that MP3 fall within the concept of degraded music”.  Monte is one of the first lawyers to be assigned to study the law at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, according to la Repubblica. 

The current law, passed through the Chamber and Senate, needs only to be published in the Official Journal before becoming a fully fledged law.  Because of this, the law is no longer able to be edited.  In order to correct the mistakes of this legislation, parliament officials will have to pass another law.

But for now, SIAE (Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori), Italy’s RIAA counterpart, will have to deal with the situation, possible to help mold a new law.