Share This Article
As part of a project aimed at fostering the development and internationalisation of the companies, the Italian Parliament has recently passed a law prescribing, among others, the corporate liability for copyright related crimes.
Indeed, Italian copyright law already prescribed criminal sanctions for the provision to the public on communications networks of copyright protected works (e.g. through P2P networks) and for the copying and publication of films and television programs (e.g. on video hosting websites) in breach of copyright owners’ rights, but such sanctions could be enforced only against the natural persons responsible for the unlawful conduct (e.g. the director managing the department responsible for the conduct). Following the coming into force of the new law, also the company itself can now face sanctions up to € 775,000.
Given the uncertainty of recent laws on the liability of ISPs, this law might be a relevant change for them and this change is considerable also for foreign ISPs in case of copyright breaches performed by their Italian customer. Italian courts might consider that the crime took place in Italy and therefore Italian criminal laws are applicable also against a foreign ISP despite of the fact that it does not have any equipment located in Italy.
