There piracy represents a gigantic problem in itself for the entertainment industry. A problem that turns into a catastrophe for the world of sports rights, which in Italy itself is experiencing a less than prosperous season due to a Serie A football championship that is increasingly less attractive for investors. You therefore understand well how the institutions have been forced to crack down on the so-called “pezzotti”, i.e. all those systems that allow you to watch the matches bypassing official season tickets: an economic loss for companies like DAZN And SKYa profit that often flows towards organized crime.
This is why, starting from September 2024, the Piracy Shield platform. Developed by Studio Previti and donated by Lega Serie A toAGCOM (The Communications Regulatory Authority), is designed to intervene on two fronts, intercepting both those who are spreading the pirated signal and those who are using it (and therefore the end user). In that sense Massimiliano Capitanio – AGCOM Commissioner – announced a few days ago the arrival of the protocol which should allow the simple application of the sanctions of 150 to 5,000 euros provided for by a specific law approved last year.
Like version 2.0 of Piracy Shield
Let’s start first from an important aspect. The days of electronic cards are now over: piracy today travels through the internet, with actual websites that illegally disseminate content protected by copyright, including sporting events (with particular reference to football matches). Everything passes through decoders with which computer pirates are able to access the contents offered by the platforms Pay TV to broadcast them for free, thus bypassing subscriptions. The technology used is called IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) and therefore allows those with a connection to be able to watch programs on a computer, smart TV or mobile phone. For free, or almost.
In fact, those who manage these illegal platforms operate by accessing paid content, recoding the program signal so that it can be transmitted via the internet and selling the pirated content to users at a price that is significantly lower than the original subscription. In this context, law no. came into force. 93/2023, renamed “anti-pezzotto”, designed to counter those who transmit or use illegal streaming and promptly blocking this content. But how? Ariadne’s thread is the IP address.
A IP address it is a unique address that identifies a device on the internet or in a local network. It is the acronym for “Internet Protocol”, or Internet Protocol, the set of rules that govern the format of data exchanged on the Internet or on the local network. In practice, an IP address is an identifier that allows devices to exchange information over a network: it can contain location information and allow access to devices for communication. The web needs a way to distinguish different computers, routers and websites. IP addresses serve this purpose and are an essential aspect of how the Internet works.
The objective is therefore to identify the IP addresses of those who spread the pirate signal and of the users who view it, so that they can be tracked down, blocked and fined. The government has therefore given AGCOM more extensive powers, allowing the authority to block access to pirate sites and domains and subdomains that today or in the future are associated with such illicit activities. It has also arrived among the tools available to the Authority Piracy Shieldwhich allows licensed paid operators to report those who are transmitting without authorization, providing the IP address of the illegal site and the reasons why they are requesting the content be blacked out. Within 30 minutes of the request, the anti-piracy shield generates a ticket and sends it to the telecommunications operators (TIM, Vodafone, Fastweb, WindTre etc.), who within another 30 minutes of the reports will block the illegal site.
This blocking occurs automatically, there is no human control, which is why a whitelist has been created of sites that cannot be affected by the reports. An approach that, however, was not enough to avoid gross errors, with perfectly legal websites that were blocked because they found themselves sharing their IP address with illegal ones (thanks to specific stratagems of computer pirates). Which is why we worked on one version 2.0 of Piracy Shieldwhich will come into operation in a few weeks: Google seems ready for dialogue to help the procedure and, finally, a solution has been found on the famous protocol between the Prosecutor’s Office and the Financial Police, which will allow information to be exchanged to identify users who use the services pirate.
The effectiveness of the fight against piracy
However, a big question mark remains regarding the actual effectiveness of Piracy Shield. The platform undoubtedly works and it is important to underline how institutions are now in a position to track down those who pay for a pirated subscription (and those who spread it) and punish them heavily. The point, however, is that applying the law is often not so simple and automatic, or at least it hasn’t been so until now. The news told us of a single user tracked down and punished, in contrast to several operations that targeted cyber criminals who managed to intercept the legal signal of the authorized platforms: during the first two days of the championship alone, around 500 addresses were blocked IP. An enormity, a clear sign of how the platform works.
The feeling, however, is that, with this new crackdown, AGCOM wants to intensify controls and fines especially towards users who pay a real subscription to criminals. In fact, there are cases of pirated content that can be viewed without any payment, which still represents a crime but which is probably less under the magnifying glass of the authorities. Also because, it is worth underlining, the fight against piracy is anything but simple, with a panorama that, as we have seen, is incredibly complex and jagged.
One detail remains unchanged: accessing pirated content always remains a crime, regardless of whether it is done for a fee or free of charge. Therefore, pay attention, also because the future of entertainment also depends on the responsibility of us users.
