A few days before the start of the Italian football season comes into effect the law number 93/2023 nicknamed “anti-pezzotto“. This legislation, together with the new regulation of theAgcomis called upon, if not to stop, at least to curb the phenomenon of piracy which affects all content covered by copyright, especially sports broadcast live, with a predilection for football.
As reported in today’s edition of The sun 24 hoursthe president of the Federation for the Safeguarding of the Audiovisual and Multimedia Content Industries (FAPAV) Federico Red baths illustrates what this paradigm shift implies:
«We are facing a historic event in the fight against audiovisual and sports piracy, a phenomenon concocted and promoted by real criminal mentalities. In 2022, around 345 million illegal acts were recorded, a good 30 million more than the previous year. The law affects new forms of illegality, such as outlawed IPTV but also other illegitimate and harmful activities for Italian cinema such as camcording».
In this framework of offenses, the data from the analysis conducted by FAPAVtogether with the company Ipsospoint out that sport has a particularity: it is the only area with growing trend in recent years with 41 million acts of piracy in 2022 equal to 178% more than in 2017. Obviously the most damaged parties are the broadcaster who find themselves competing with subjects that are difficult to identify and who “operate” with prices outside any market. When it is not a question of real free sites accessible by all users, with implications relating to the computer security of the latter.
«The entry into force of this law – explains the CEO Sky ItaliaAndrea Duilius – it is an important turning point to protect the millions of fans who have always opted for the law. From today, the fight against piracy will be more effective thanks to the involvement of all players in the supply chain, from rights holders, to the authorities, to Internet Service Providers, united in a collective effort to counter this criminal phenomenon which has destroyed jobs over the years and damaged entire productive sectors.
Following the publication in Official Gazette of last July 14thon the 26th of last month Agcom approved the new Operating Regulation (rapporteur Massimiliano Capitanio), complementary to the law, completing the legislative and regulatory framework that has its main novelty in the powers of intervention granted to the Authority which can ask the telecommunications companies to intervene and shut down the sites on which reports have been forwarded by the injured parties (DAZN, Sky or Lega Serie A for example) within a maximum of 30 minutes.
It is also expected thetougher sanctionsi: prison of up to 3 years for those ttransmits illegally and fines up to 5,000 euros for those who use it. To complete the picture, a single technology platform is needed for the implementation of blocking orders. To shorten the time Serie A League has made its ready-made platform available, which will now be validated by a technical committee within Agcom which, according to what has been learned from The sun 24 hourswas summoned for the first week of September. Month in which, if everything were to go smoothly, the circle would come full circle.
Everything is done with a certain speed to favor the approval of the audiovisual rights of theto Serie A for the next cycle, maximum duration five years, starting from 2024. And the problem is tackled with the utmost seriousness by broadcasters who could be convinced to make an effort, in terms of the offer to present to the Serie A League, if the fight against piracy immediately brought results. Based on FIGC report, radio and TV rights accounted for 41% of Serie A revenues in 2021-22. The next update assembly (on the table are the proposals of Dazn, Sky and Mediaset for the free-to-air match) will be held via videoconference on August 21stwith the first meeting of the clubs in attendance instead expected for theSept. 11.
Particular attention, at the behest of the managing director Luigi of servanthas been given to the protection of broadcasting rights of live football matches.
«As Lega we are satisfied, after more than 4 years of work the fight against piracy has become a battle for everyone and finally a state law. This illegal system has made us lose over 1 billion euros in the last 3 years alone, damaging all the clubs and true fans who have paid to follow their team. However, the law alone is not enough, it is necessary to ensure that the operational phase is not hindered and that it is really possible to interrupt pirated transmissions quickly. This squeeze could give new impetus to Serie A TV rights, with the League having been discussing with broadcasters for months in view of private negotiations for the next five years. In short, an important victory, but the decisive battle has yet to be played.
DAZN which followed and actively supported the carrying out of the activities that led to the approval of the law against piracy and the adoption by AGCOM of the regulationor, comments on the entry into force of the law thus:
«Over last months of last football season DAZN worked diligently in coordination with the competent authorities, managing to block at least 80 pirate sites that illegally broadcast Serie A TIM matches on Italian territory in violation of rights and which were closed thanks to to the intervention of AGCOM. Based on this decision, DAZN has initiated damages claims for the moment on 26 sites which will become around 50 by the end of September. We are confident that these actions will contribute to significantly raise awareness of the importance of the fight against piracy, allowing corporate and systemic losses to be formally recognized, triggering a deterrent effect. As emerged from the FAPAV/Ipsos survey, to date the percentage of people who find blocked sites is still too low, we are talking about 17% of pirates. By virtue of this, we fully understand the importance of the new legal and regulatory framework which makes Italy a state-of-the-art country».
Article by Simone Rossi
per “Digital-News.it“
(twitter: @simone__rossi)