The war against does not stop “the piece” and now it also arrives in Parliament. The first go-ahead has finally arrived for the provision for the prevention and repression of the illicit online diffusion of content protected by copyright. With penalties that include up to 3 years of imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros. In the Chamber of Deputies he passed with 252 votes in favor and none against.
A new law therefore to counter the illicit dissemination of contents protected by copyright, therefore live broadcasts of football matches but also films that have just come out at the cinema or live private TV shows such as X Factor. An important battle which the various audiovisual operators have been putting pressure on for some time, starting with DAZN e Sky, holders of rights to broadcast Serie A matches and European Cups. On the basis of a survey conducted in recent weeks by La Repubblica, there would be as many as 5 million Italians who use the famous “pezzotto”, a illegal system which, upon payment of a pirate subscription, allows the viewing of all pay content from football matches to Netflix. Resources obviously taken away from the legal circuit of subscriptions.
Greater powers to Agcom
The provision, still to be submitted to the examination of the Senate, provides for the growth of powers for theAgcom (Communications Guarantee Authority) which you will be able to order from Internet connection providers very quickly, too within half an hourto disable access to content disseminated illegally by adopting precautionary measures as a matter of urgency.
Technically this is done by blocking DNS resolution of domain names and blocking the routing of network traffic to them IP addresses uniquely intended for illegal activities. In short, anyone trying to follow a football match or a movie on a pirate site will see the blacked out program and an on-screen warning of any report to the authorities.
“In the case of content broadcast live, the measure is adopted, notified and executed before the start or, at the latest, during the live broadcast itself”, reads the text. Agcom will forward to the prosecutor’s office at the court of Rome the list of the disabling measures adopted.
Here’s what changes
After approval by the House, the law it should proceed expeditiously and without changes also in the Senate in order to bring into force the law presented last November by Federico Mollicone of Fratelli d’Italia, as soon as possible. The substantial difference from the current law is that, on the basis of the new rules, Agcom will be able to intervene and order the telecommunications companies to block the illegitimate sites, without listening to the reasons of the pirates, therefore the contradictory obligation will lapse.
This passage, in fact, prevented the transmission of matches from being stopped because often the authorization to the dark arrived only after the event was over. The attention of the nascent platform anti-piracy will focus on the Dsn (Domain Name System), hitting a decisive process for the functioning of the web because it is the one that allows you to see the various contents published by an address on different devices.
Very severe penalties
According to the measure passed in the House, “anyone who illegally fixes a cinematographic, audiovisual or editorial work on digital, audio, video or audio-video support, in whole or in part, or carries out the reproduction, execution or communication to the public of the illegally performed fixing, will be punished with the imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years and with a fine of between 2,582 and 15,493 euros”. Will it really be the end of the “pezzotto” or will the pirates find another way?