Pirate IPTVs are the new target of the police and rights holders for football, series and films. After going unnoticed for years as a very simple and straightforward method of viewing pirated content, they suddenly received a lot of attention, with mass shutdowns and arrests in Europe and the rest of the European Union. Stricter measures against piracy are also in the works, inspired by the new Italian law that came into force quickly last year.
One of the key new features of the new Italian law is the “Piracy Shield”, a new “crazy” system for blocking pages and servers which forces operators to act. in just 30 minutes of the demand imposed by the rights holders. The main objective is IPTVs which offer broadcasts of football matches, and even Google will not be able to escape these obligations, as the government has confirmed.
From the beginning, the new law attracted widespread criticism for several reasons, including the ease of blocking websites, without the need for judicial authorization, or the costs derived from the system, which operators will have to bear. The latter are the ones who have presented the biggest legal challenge so far, taking legal action in an attempt to at least delay the implementation of the Piracy Shield.
Assoprovider, the Italian association of small and medium Internet operators, assured that The new law could lead to the closure of many businesses throughout Italy, due to the significant investment they will have to make, regardless of their size. The obligation to respond to requests from channels like Sky Italia within 30 minutes will force companies to have employees dedicated exclusively to this task, and to implement instant blocking systems, which could cost up to 300 000 dollars per year.
However, now the decision of the Lazio Administrative Court eliminate all hope that Assoprovider may have to find a compromise with AGCOM, the telecommunications regulator, and Italy’s Serie A, which figured in the case; The court completely put an end to this legal avenue, according to TorrentFreakrejecting all complaints presented by operators.
The court considers that the Piracy Shield was implemented for the protection of copyright, something that defines as “public interest”, so you see no reason to block it. He also does not believe that the possible errors or harmful consequences that this system could have are enough to reverse it. Specifically, he ruled out possible mistakes operators make by trying to crash servers in just 30 minutes, which could lead to “collateral damage” such as innocent web pages sharing a server with pirate services. He believes the 30-minute limit “is there for a reason” because sporting events are relatively short and therefore intellectual property violations need to be dealt with quickly.
The court also did not consider it a problem that the main beneficiary of the Piracy Shield, Serie A, was its creator instead of the telecommunications regulator, which simply adopted it because it believes it “benefits everyone”.
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