Agcom, crackdown on video piracy and blocking of outlawed sites in 30 minutes

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No longer three days, but an almost real-time intervention to stop pirate sites that broadcast live sporting events. The block must intervene in a maximum of 30 minutes.

Agcom is preparing to crack down on online audiovisual piracy. A crackdown that will come through the amendment of the regulation referred to in Resolution 680/13/CONS of 12 December 2013, which is preparing to be put up for consultation.

In the end, the result is the same as one of the Lotito amendments (the president of Lazio and senator of Forza Italia) aimed at the manoeuvre. There the Authority was asked to do its utmost to implement a measure like this. However, Agcom was evidently already working on it. And the amendment to the Online Copyright Protection Regulation now appears as an item on the agenda of tomorrow’s meeting, Wednesday 14 December 2022, of the Council.

The list of topics to be discussed is large and it is possible that to close the circle we will have to go to the next meeting on 21 December. In any case, the amendment to the “Regulation on the subject of copyright protection on electronic communication networks and implementing procedures pursuant to legislative decree 9 April 2003, n. 70” is ready to arrive on the table of the Council with a rapporteur who, according to the Only 24 Hourswill be Commissioner Massimiliano Capitanio.

After all, it is Capitanio himself who was the promoter, in the past legislature in the Chamber, of a bill that will now be discussed again in Commissions VII and IX. In this proposal, in addition to the measures to combat piracy, other innovations concern the fight against camcording (recordings made in cinemas or where events take place) and online payment tracking to fight criminal organizations. In the latest Fapav-Ipsos report it was estimated that in 2021 the damage linked to the piracy of live sporting events consisted of 11 million lost uses and a loss of turnover equal to 267 million euros.