diritto d'autore alla Camera - Studio Legale Sarzana, Montagna & Associati

Copyright, copyright, piracy: the phenomenon in Italy is mainly linked to football matches, watched on streaming sites that do not own the rights (around 11 million Italians use them, Fapav/Ipsos data), while the use of illegal downloads of music, films and TV series is decreasing.

To combat this phenomenon, three bills have been presented in recent years (specifically, 1357 Butti, 2188 Captain e 2679 Zanella), which include new provisions to prevent and repress the dissemination of copyrighted content via the Internet.

In examining these proposals, the joint Culture and Transport Committees of the Chamber of Deputies heard the opinions of several trade associations: in addition to Assoprovider, consulted in its capacity as the association representing Local Area Operators (ISPs and WISPs), representatives of Aiip (Italian Internet Provider Association), Fapav (Federation for the Protection of Audiovisual and Multimedia Content), Siae (Italian Authors' Association), and Aie (Italian Publishers' Association) participated.

Speaking on behalf of Assoprovider were President Dino Bortolotto and lawyer Fulvio Sarzana.

Bortolotto's speech is followed by Fulvio Sarzana's reflection, lawyer, legal advisor to Assoprovider. Sarzana focuses on the potential conflicts the new rules could create with EU law:

«The wording of the bills is anomalous: these provisions, if approved, could violate several EU provisions, such as those in force on electronic commerce, which prohibit preventive control by operators on what happens on the Internet.».

Furthermore, criminal law provides that “only the judicial authority can establish certain obligations and impositions"”, recalls the lawyer.

Sarzana also insists on the issue of costs:

«We know that most copyright infringement operations take place abroad: the new rules would force Italian entities, at very high costs, to intervene to deny access to foreign sites to Italian citizens.»"It is therefore unacceptable that such "“Enforcement should be introduced at the national level, derogating from EU legislation: I therefore invite you to reconsider the proposed laws, to better specify them and verify their compatibility with European standards"”, concludes Sarzana.

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