> didn't realize Italy was like that

Seems aligned with the idea of "perpetual copyright" Italy has been pushing: https://www.aippi.org/news/italy-cultural-heritage-protectio...

And these "quirckiness" isn't exclusive to Italy, many countries in Europe have much tougher views on individual freedoms, regulate speech much stronger than crowd in HN is used to.

Granted you may rarely get jail time, just the fact that you should worry about your criminal record is enough to prevent people to even voice ideas