Serie A, fight against piracy: tomorrow the assist from Agcom

A new crackdown on piracy in the world of football is on the way, an annual round that brings in around 300 million a year to sites that illegally broadcast our league matches. Tomorrow’s Agcom board has, among the items on the agenda, that of amending resolution 680 of 2013 after the appropriate public consultation. The one that protects copyright on electronic communication networks and implementation procedures. The process, which will start with the aforementioned public consultation, will lead by the end of January to the dynamic blocking procedure, to be implemented within a maximum of 30 minutes, of electronic addresses that spread illicit transmissions. A fundamental step against piracy that must be fought with timely tools like this. The provision desired by the Authority is inspired by the contents of the Bill signed by the honorable Massimiliano Capitanio, who has now become commissioner of Agcom.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN

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Politics, through the now well-known “Lotito amendment” (bipartisan) was working to resolve the problem, but Agcom, which has already had the fight against piracy among its priorities for some time, has decided to anticipate the times. How? With this change to resolution 680 which introduces a flow block for pirated IP addresses on the networks of internet service providers. At that point the illegal IPs are excluded from the flow in a short time. This is a dynamic provision, meaning that it will remain open for future complaints. Translated: when the League intercepts telematic addresses that broadcast pirated transmissions, thanks to the first provision issued by Agcom, it will be able… to expand it and also have these new telematic addresses blocked on the networks of Internet Service Providers, not only in the 30 minutes imposed by the Authority , but also through the “machine to machine” mechanism. What is it about? Of an automated blocking system activated in a few moments from detection and complaint to Agcom supported by evidence (and under its own responsibility) from the League. On the screens of the users of the illegal service, an Agcom graphic will be transmitted, which will specify that it is an “illicit transmission”, with all the consequences of the case. Including reporting to the judicial authority.

DE SIERVO EXPLAINS

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The mechanism will be very fast, as necessary to stop the “pirates” already within the first half of the match, and will also act as a deterrent. “I would like to thank Agcom’s new approach – said the CEO of Lega Serie A, Luigi De Siervo – which helps us to protect the audiovisual product of Serie A, but also the entire audiovisual content industry in general and multimedia, thanks to the “machine to machine” mechanism that immediately shuts down the pirate site. ‘Piracy kills football’ was our initial claim, and this is evident from the Fapav study which, over the last three years, has certified 1 billion lost revenues for the League. With this money available to the clubs, how many great champions could have reached Serie A or stayed here? Most of the problems we are facing in recent months have been amplified by the sad primacy that Italy has in the world in terms of piracy”.