War on the piece. All the news of the anti-piracy law

13 July 202310 months ago babelfish

In 2022 there were at least 345 million offenses that violated copyright rules. To counter them, with particular reference to those who watch matches without a pay TV subscription, the anti-piracy law extends Agcom's powers

Although the relations between the majority and the opposition are not idyllic, the provision on the prevention and repression of the illicit dissemination of content protected by copyright through electronic communication networks has had the merit of having achieved full consensus in both the branches of Parliament being dismissed without any dissenting vote. This is the famous anti-piracy law that has been loudly requested for some time by Dazn, Sky and Serie A to stem those sly ones who with various tricks (from the snipe to the connection to illegal sites) manage to watch the matches without paying any subscription.

WHAT CHANGES WITH THE ANTI-PIRACY LAW

The heart of the provision which remained unchanged in the transition from the Lower House to the Upper House is article 2 which gives the Authority for Communications Guarantees (Agcom) the power to order service providers to disable access to content disseminated in unlawfully, even by adopting urgent precautionary measures for this purpose.

With 252 votes in favor and none against, the Chamber approved the measure Provisions for the prevention and repression of the illicit diffusion of content protected by copyright through electronic communication networks. #OpenCamera pic.twitter.com/BjXM2lbdyZ

— Chamber of Deputies (@Montecitorio) March 22, 2023

THE NEW POWERS OF AGCOM

More specifically, Agcom can order service providers, including network access providers, to disable access to illegal content by blocking DNS resolution of domain names and blocking network traffic routing towards IP addresses uniquely destined for illegal activities.

When adopting this provision, Agcom also orders the blocking of any other future domain name, subdomain, where technically possible, or IP address, to anyone attributable, including changes to the name or simple declination or extension (so-called top level domain), which allows access to the same illegally disseminated contents or to contents of the same nature (paragraphs 1 and 2).

EMERGENCY INTERVENTIONS

In cases of seriousness and urgency, in which the violation concerns contents broadcast live, first visions of cinematographic and audiovisual works or entertainment programmes, audiovisual contents, including sports or other similar intellectual works, sporting events as well as events of interest social or of great public interest, Agcom orders service providers, including network access service providers, to disable access to illegally transmitted content by blocking domain names and IP addresses, adopting to this end an abbreviated precautionary measure, without hearing, at the request of the owner or licensee of the right or by the collective management or trade association to which the owner or licensee of the right has conferred a mandate or by a person belonging to the category of reliable signallers, as defined by article 22, paragraph 2, of the European Regulation on digital services (EU) 2022/2065 as entities that have demonstrated, among other things, that they have particular skills and competences in the fight against illegal content and that they carry out their activities in diligent, accurate and objective manner.

In the case of content broadcast live, the measure is adopted, notified and executed before the start or, at the latest, during the broadcast itself; for contents not broadcast live but in any case similar to them, the reference is to their first broadcast. It will be Agcom itself, with its own regulation, in compliance with the principles of graduality, proportionality and adequacy, to regulate the relative abbreviated precautionary procedure, ensuring effective means of complaint to the recipient of the provision (paragraph 3).

The legitimated subjects submit to Agcom, under their own responsibility, the request for immediate blocking of the DNS resolution of domain names and of the routing of network traffic to IP addresses, also jointly, attaching the necessary documentation for this purpose, which may consist of the list of domain names and IP addresses through which the illegally disseminated contents are made available.

This list can be updated by the holder of the rights or his assignees and communicated directly and simultaneously by AGCOM to the recipients of the provision, who must provide for the removal or disabling promptly and in any case within the maximum term of 30 minutes from the communication (paragraph 4).

The disabling measures taken (paragraph 5) are immediately notified by AGCOM:

network access service providers;
to search engine managers and information society service providers involved in any capacity in the accessibility of the website or illegal services;
to the European Union Internet Referral Unit of Europol;
to the person who requested the adoption of the measure.

Upon receipt of the notification, the network access service providers, the search engine managers and the information society service providers involved in any capacity in the accessibility of the website or illegal services carry out the Authority's provision without any delay and in any case within 30 minutes of notification, by disabling DNS resolution of domain names and routing of network traffic to the IP addresses indicated in the list referred to in paragraph 4 or in any case by adopting the technological and organizational measures necessary to make content transmitted illegally cannot be used by end users.

THE PENALTIES FOR THE CRAZY

Finally, Article 3 deals with what the crafty risk in violating the new anti-piracy law: Imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years and with a fine that can reach up to five thousand euros. According to the data cited by Fapav (Federation for the Protection of Audiovisual and Multimedia Content Industries) in 2022 there are around 345 million offences, around 30 million more than the previous year.

And Fapav promotes the new anti-piracy law: “We look at the fight against piracy with greater confidence, especially with reference to sporting events. We can also say that we are more positive for the start of the next season of the Serie A and Serie B championships: we will have new tools to fight piracy”, said the president Bagnoli Rossi.

The text will now have to be countersigned by the Head of State, it will subsequently be published in the Official Gazette and, after fifteen days, it will be able to produce legal effects. At that point, through the issuing of a Regulation by Agcom, it will be possible to fully implement the anti-piracy law. A race to arrive in time for the Serie A kick-off.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/guerra-al-pezzotto-tutte-le-novita-della-legge-anti-pirateria/ on Thu, 13 Jul 2023 08:06:26 +0000.