Massive Expansion of Italy's Piracy Shield Underway (techdirt.com)
(Thursday April 03, 2025 @11:30PM (BeauHD)
from the doubling-down dept.)
- Reference: 0176918127
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/04/03/2257221/massive-expansion-of-italys-piracy-shield-underway
- Source link: https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/03/massive-expansion-of-italys-piracy-shield-underway-despite-growing-criticism-of-its-flaws/
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt:
> Walled Culture has been following closely Italy's poorly designed Piracy Shield system. Back in December we reported how copyright companies used their access to the Piracy Shield system to order Italian Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to all of Google Drive for the entire country, and how malicious actors could similarly use that unchecked power to [1]shut down critical national infrastructure . Since then, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), an international, not-for-profit association representing computer, communications, and Internet industry firms, has added its voice to the chorus of disapproval. In [2]a letter (PDF) to the European Commission, it warned about the dangers of the Piracy Shield system to the EU economy [...]. It also raised an important new issue: the fact that Italy brought in this extreme legislation without notifying the European Commission under the so-called " [3]TRIS " procedure, which allows others to comment on possible problems [...].
>
> As well as Italy's failure to notify the Commission about its new legislation in advance, the CCIA believes that: this anti-piracy mechanism is in breach of several other EU laws. That includes the Open Internet Regulation which prohibits ISPs to block or slow internet traffic unless required by a legal order. The block subsequent to the Piracy Shield also contradicts the Digital Services Act (DSA) in several aspects, notably Article 9 requiring certain elements to be included in the orders to act against illegal content. More broadly, the Piracy Shield is not aligned with the Charter of Fundamental Rights nor the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU -- as it hinders freedom of expression, freedom to provide internet services, the principle of proportionality, and the right to an effective remedy and a fair trial.
>
> Far from taking these criticisms to heart, or acknowledging that Piracy Shield has [4]failed to convert people to paying subscribers , the Italian government has [5]decided to double down, and to make Piracy Shield even worse . Massimiliano Capitanio, Commissioner at AGCOM, the Italian Authority for Communications Guarantees, explained on LinkedIn how Piracy Shield was being extended in far-reaching ways (translation by Google Translate, [6]original in Italian ). [...] That is, Piracy Shield will apply to live content far beyond sports events, its original justification, and to streaming services. Even DNS and VPN providers will be required to block sites, a serious technical interference in the way the Internet operates, and a threat to people's privacy. Search engines, too, will be forced to de-index material. The only minor concession to ISPs is to unblock domain names and IP addresses that are no longer allegedly being used to disseminate unauthorized material. There are, of course, no concessions to ordinary Internet users affected by Piracy Shield blunders.
In the future, Italy's Piracy Shield will add:
- 30-minute blackout orders not only for pirate sports events, but also for other live content;
- the extension of blackout orders to VPNs and public DNS providers;
- the obligation for search engines to de-index pirate sites;
- the procedures for unblocking domain names and IP addresses obscured by Piracy Shield that are no longer used to spread pirate content;
- the new procedure to combat piracy on the #linear and "on demand" television, for example to protect the #film and #serietv.
[1] https://walledculture.org/why-italys-piracy-shield-risks-moving-from-tiresome-digital-farce-to-serious-national-tragedy/
[2] https://ccianet.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Italian-Piracy-Shield-and-Copyright-Law-Amendments-.pdf
[3] https://technical-regulation-information-system.ec.europa.eu/en/home
[4] https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-shield-fails-to-convert-pirates-to-paying-subscribers-data-suggest-250119/
[5] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/03/massive-expansion-of-italys-piracy-shield-underway-despite-growing-criticism-of-its-flaws/
[6] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/massimiliano-capitanio-6b5ab321_pirateria-calcio-agcom-activity-7297696359191633920-D9uo/
> Walled Culture has been following closely Italy's poorly designed Piracy Shield system. Back in December we reported how copyright companies used their access to the Piracy Shield system to order Italian Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to all of Google Drive for the entire country, and how malicious actors could similarly use that unchecked power to [1]shut down critical national infrastructure . Since then, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), an international, not-for-profit association representing computer, communications, and Internet industry firms, has added its voice to the chorus of disapproval. In [2]a letter (PDF) to the European Commission, it warned about the dangers of the Piracy Shield system to the EU economy [...]. It also raised an important new issue: the fact that Italy brought in this extreme legislation without notifying the European Commission under the so-called " [3]TRIS " procedure, which allows others to comment on possible problems [...].
>
> As well as Italy's failure to notify the Commission about its new legislation in advance, the CCIA believes that: this anti-piracy mechanism is in breach of several other EU laws. That includes the Open Internet Regulation which prohibits ISPs to block or slow internet traffic unless required by a legal order. The block subsequent to the Piracy Shield also contradicts the Digital Services Act (DSA) in several aspects, notably Article 9 requiring certain elements to be included in the orders to act against illegal content. More broadly, the Piracy Shield is not aligned with the Charter of Fundamental Rights nor the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU -- as it hinders freedom of expression, freedom to provide internet services, the principle of proportionality, and the right to an effective remedy and a fair trial.
>
> Far from taking these criticisms to heart, or acknowledging that Piracy Shield has [4]failed to convert people to paying subscribers , the Italian government has [5]decided to double down, and to make Piracy Shield even worse . Massimiliano Capitanio, Commissioner at AGCOM, the Italian Authority for Communications Guarantees, explained on LinkedIn how Piracy Shield was being extended in far-reaching ways (translation by Google Translate, [6]original in Italian ). [...] That is, Piracy Shield will apply to live content far beyond sports events, its original justification, and to streaming services. Even DNS and VPN providers will be required to block sites, a serious technical interference in the way the Internet operates, and a threat to people's privacy. Search engines, too, will be forced to de-index material. The only minor concession to ISPs is to unblock domain names and IP addresses that are no longer allegedly being used to disseminate unauthorized material. There are, of course, no concessions to ordinary Internet users affected by Piracy Shield blunders.
In the future, Italy's Piracy Shield will add:
- 30-minute blackout orders not only for pirate sports events, but also for other live content;
- the extension of blackout orders to VPNs and public DNS providers;
- the obligation for search engines to de-index pirate sites;
- the procedures for unblocking domain names and IP addresses obscured by Piracy Shield that are no longer used to spread pirate content;
- the new procedure to combat piracy on the #linear and "on demand" television, for example to protect the #film and #serietv.
[1] https://walledculture.org/why-italys-piracy-shield-risks-moving-from-tiresome-digital-farce-to-serious-national-tragedy/
[2] https://ccianet.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Italian-Piracy-Shield-and-Copyright-Law-Amendments-.pdf
[3] https://technical-regulation-information-system.ec.europa.eu/en/home
[4] https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-shield-fails-to-convert-pirates-to-paying-subscribers-data-suggest-250119/
[5] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/03/massive-expansion-of-italys-piracy-shield-underway-despite-growing-criticism-of-its-flaws/
[6] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/massimiliano-capitanio-6b5ab321_pirateria-calcio-agcom-activity-7297696359191633920-D9uo/
It only can make things worse... (Score:1)
by Anonymous Coward
Looks like they are forgetting what the US and other countries learned in the 1990s and 2000s. No matter what measures they use to forbid stuff, there will be workarounds. Scanning Google Drives? All it means is Cryptomator winds up being used, and perhaps someone makes a next-generation encryption layer to allow others to access shared files with their key. Blocking VPNs? It will take becoming like China. Chasing after people? It means everyone will get encryption layers, more than just BitLocker an
How exactly would this work (Score:1)
by OppMan29 ( 1270518 )
Once you are online, you can buy a VPN in any country you want . Sure the speed will be slower but it will still work and if that wasn't enough other protocols like torrent will allow you to download anything, unless you want to want to create a Great Chinese firewall, this just stops a few people.
Why aren't they going after the source? (Score:2)
If some computer out there is hosting and distributing copyrighted material, the copyright holders should be going after those computers to get them taken down instead of this site blocking BS. I would have thought it would be much easier to get content taken down at the source than having multiple countries block it through these site blocking mechanisms.