Italian authorities have stepped up their fight against subscription-based content piracy, particularly in sports streaming. Communications Regulatory Authority, AgCom, said it would further expand the scope of its Piracy Shield platform to include other content such as cultural events, music, and TV series.
The Piracy Shield platform was launched last February. It seeks to identify and sanction the pirates who achieve unauthorized access to pirated content. So far, it has given success in piracy by blocking more than 1,000 of its online domains and more than 500 IP addresses registered for streaming since the start of this year’s football season in Italy.
Identification of internet pirates through collaboration with law enforcement agencies and technology firms is enhancing AgCom’s enforcement. It has signed a protocol with the Guardia di Finanza as well as Rome’s Public Prosecutor Office but collaborates with Google and Cloudflare.
In practice, authorities will be able to discover names, surnames, IP addresses, and further identifying data on the users who benefit from the pirated streaming services. In this way, AgCom will be able to apply fines upon those who access unlawful content-from €150 to €15,000-once the sanctions issued by a law approved in July 2023 come into effect.
Such programs are offered towards combating piracy, ensuring the rights of creators, and providing a free market for those legal content providers.
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