Sky Italia Lodges Appeal Against New Italian Copyright Regulations

At the beginning of April, we published a story about the new Italian online copyright enforcement that went into effect on March 31st. The new Regulation, approved by AGCOM, the Italian media authority, contains a detailed "notice and takedown" procedure, in which the ISPs have only three days following receipt of notice to respond to it. The intention of the expedited notices to the ISPs is what AGCOM sees as an effective legal means to fight digital piracy. The new Regulation focuses only on copyright violations through the ISPs who are required to respond to the takedown notices from AGCOM.

Opposed to the new Regulation, Telecompaper reports that Sky Italia, an Italian Pay-TV service provider, has lodged an appeal over the extensive powers granted to AGCOM in the new copyright regulations. Sky considers those powers “anti-constitutional” and is the first service provider company to appeal against the current measures in place that allow AGCOM to block not only websites, but also TV programs that allegedly infringe copyright.

According to Sky, this could potentially cause problems with program creators asking AGCOM to block the airing of their productions in order to give them greater negotiating power with the broadcaster.

Prior to Sky’s appeal, Italian consumer associations Altroconsumo, Assoprovider and Assintel, have already taken action and lodged their appeals with the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio, which is the main Italian administrative court of first instance, calling for the cancellation of the new Regulation on the grounds that the procedure is unfair because it amounts to “an exercise in repression that fails to provide for any appeal to courts, as required by the Constitution.”

Like the other authorities set up in the Italian system, AGCOM is accountable to Parliament which has established its powers, defined its statutes and elected its members.

We’ll have to wait and see whether or not any of the appeals against the new Regulation are successful, and whether or not AGCOM retains the same power it currently has under the new Regulation.