Italy's new anti-piracy law could bring swift justice to IPTV streamers and users

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Why it matters: Piracy is a particularly serious issue in Italy's streaming market, and the current government is clearly interested in doing something about it. There's a new anti-piracy law in Italy, which provides the regulator and competition authority for communications with potentially very effective tools to disrupt the illegal IPTV business.

A new law was recently passed by the Italian parliament without a hitch, and the Authority for Communications Guarantees has now approved the rules highlighting its new powers. AGCOM's deliberation (680/13/CONS) is the agency's main "rule book" regarding online copyright. The changes approved by both chambers of the Italian parliament concern the fight against unauthorized IPTV offerings of live sports events.

Both markets (online piracy and sports events) enjoy widespread popularity among Italian netizens, so the recently approved law is bound to have some actual effect on the IPTV piracy business.

Users of pirate IPTV services could risk identification, too, as the law includes a fine up to €5,000 for viewers. Recent estimations say that around 25% of Italian adult users consume some pirate IPTV streams in a year, so AGCOM's new powers could provide some interesting effects in the months and years to come.

The anti-piracy law amendments provide the agency with the power to issue "dynamic injunctions" against pirate IPTV services, blocking user access to unlawful live streaming within the first 30 minutes of the event. AGCOM can now block DNS resolution of domain names and traffic routing for IPs that are "unambiguously" identified as belonging to unlawful activities.

The new measures are in line with the recommendations issued by the European Union about dynamic injunctions, and will become effective on August 8, 2023. AGCOM says the law will now give the agency power over both sport and non-sport related pirate streams, as internet providers will be required to quickly answer to its blocking requests.

Furthermore, after blocking the streaming services, ISPs will need to send a report to the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Rome. The report should include detail on the activities carried out to fulfill AGCOM's requests, plus "any existing data" that could be useful to track and identify the pirate service providers.

If an internet provider doesn't comply with the authorities' orders, the company will be sanctioned with an administrative fine of €10,620 to €265,000. Those involved in unlawful streaming services could face up to three years in prison, plus a fine up to €15,000.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/99602-italy-new-anti-piracy-law-could-bring-swift.html

 

[Theinsanegamer]

"Piracy is a particularly serious issue in Italy's streaming market, and Rome's far-right government run by post-fascist party Fratelli d'Italia"

Techspot needs to stop injecting politics into its articles. Blocking piracy has nothing to do with being "far right"; left wing parties do this too, and Techspot doesnt label, say, Democrats as the "post jim crow party". Furthermore, the article itself makes no mention as to the party's affiliation nor why it being right wing matters, making the title a cheap shot to stir debate. This kind of writing belongs in media rags like buzzfeed, not techspot.

"Users of pirate IPTV services could risk identification too, as the law includes a fine up to €5,000 for viewers"

THIS is what techspot SHOULD be focusing on, such fines for viewers are unheard of in most anti piracy bills, and only enforces the need of VPN services and efforts to hide ones identity.

 

[trparky]

Blocking piracy has nothing to do with being "far right"; left wing parties do this too, and Techspot doesn't label

That's what happens when the Overton Window moves so far to the left like it has. Anyone who's not a Leftist suddenly is far-right because the Left has moved so far to the left while the Right has mostly stood still.

 

[Julio Franco]

Techspot needs to stop injecting politics into its articles. Blocking piracy has nothing to do with being "far right"; left wing parties do this too, and Techspot doesnt label, say, Democrats as the "post jim crow party". Furthermore, the article itself makes no mention as to the party's affiliation nor why it being right wing matters, making the title a cheap shot to stir debate. This kind of writing belongs in media rags like buzzfeed, not techspot.

I agree 100%. We've set new internal guidelines because that kind of commentary and reporting does not belong on TechSpot. The story has been edited accordingly.

 

[redgarl]

Oh yeah... another stupid attempt to punish the user instead of going against the provider.

Let's not take into account the predatory measures from all the streaming services or those specialized channel charging a premium for sport events that were on public TV 10 years ago.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I agree 100%. We've set new internal guidelines because that kind of commentary and reporting does not belong on TechSpot. The story has been edited accordingly.

Thank you. Glad to see tech sites willing to stick to tech.

Oh yeah... another stupid attempt to punish the user instead of going against the provider.

Let's not take into account the predatory measures from all the streaming services or those specialized channel charging a premium for sport events that were on public TV 10 years ago.

They'll keep doing it because of the money involved. This will just drive the providers to host via shell companies in other countries. It wont fix the service issue these companies have.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

I agree 100%. We've set new internal guidelines because that kind of commentary and reporting does not belong on TechSpot. The story has been edited accordingly.

I agree and if I had stated this I would have been banned yet again for pointing out such things.

 

[Sir Sparkles]

They still haven't figured out how to make streaming sports more convenient and accessible than piracy like the music industry has, so will continue the whack a mole process for now.

 

[toooooot]

Whatever, quality of TV and movies has never been lower.
They are doing it. Better rewatch an old show than see 5 made by monkeys and assisted by AI.
These companies, they see those the pirates as customers if they could block them from pirating.
But that is completely wrong. Those are people who would never pay to begin with.
And the only way they would familiarize themselves with these products would be if they did it for free.
That is extremely foolish that they can't comprehend that there is no such thing as money lost due to piracy.
In fact, the only way you could compel them to pay somehow would be to allow them watch for free with ads.