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The Court of Milan issued an interesting decision on a topic that is very “hot” especially now during the Football World Cup. Sky Italia, the holder of the copyrights on the broadcasting of the matches of the Italian football championship, brought a claim against the website “tvgratis.net” that provided the links and software necessary to access to Chinese websites stream broadcasting such football matches in breach of Sky Italia’s copyrights and against Telecom Italia, the Italian telecom incumbent, providing access to such website.
The court held that the website “tvgratis.net” was contributory liable for the breach performed by the Chinese website because it had provided the tools allowing the access to the copyright protected material. On the contrary, the court applied the principles set out in the E-Commerce Directive as implemented in Italy and declared that Telecom Italia was not liable for giving access to breaching contents.
It would be interesting to see what the outcome of this decision would have been in other jurisdictions, if you have your view on that just post your comment or send an email to me, Giulio Coraggio.
