We’d just been talking about how much we’re going to miss living in Rome. Now this happens.

According to a story in La Repubblica, under Italian law, Youtube and other similar sites, such as DailyMotion, [are now considered TV stations](http://www.repubblica.it/tecnologia/2010/12/31/news/agcom_equipara_youtube_alle_tv-10738254/) ([bizarre English translation here](http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=it&tl=en&u=http://www.repubblica.it/tecnologia/2010/12/31/news/agcom_equipara_youtube_alle_tv-10738254/&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com)).

What does this mean? Well, naturally it means a tax (this is Italy, after all – some money has *got* to change hands). It also means that these sites will be obliged to prohibit access to content inappropriate for children in certain time slots. More importantly though, it means that the sites are now legally responsible for all user-content uploaded to them, meaning that if some [half-senile old fuck who controls half the media in the country](http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2010/6/29/28c85220-ca45-4cc2-a9e4-f8d94d040537.jpg) finds some of their content on there, he finally has someone to sue.

I have to be honest, if the owners of these sites decide that the easiest way to solve all these problems is to just block access from Italy entirely, I wouldn’t even be slightly surprised. That guy from [YouReporter.it](http://youreporter.it/) nailed it: “This is a legal absurdity and violence done to reality.”