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The Italian Court of Cassation (the Italian Supreme Court) has issued a groundbreaking decision on the liability regime applicable to editors of online newspapers, blogs and forums. Indeed, the Italian criminal code prescribes that editors of printed newspapers and other journals are “objectively” liable for any content published on their newspapers despite of their lack of knowledge of the challenged such material, even though they had not been negligent in the monitoring of the published articles.
This provision has been the basis of some court decisions where judges have not only prescribed that editors of online newspapers are subject to the same regime applicable to editors of printed press materials, but also stated that Internet hosting providers are liable for any content published by their users, in clear contrast with the non-monitoring principle set forth in the EU E-Commerce Directive.
Now the Court of Cassation held that online press materials (including online newspapers, forums, blogs) are not equal to printed materials and the liability regime applicable to materials published on the Internet is the one set forth in the E-Commerce Directive.
This decision is likely to create a higher level of trust by online operators towards the Italian market that after the recent YouTube/R.T.I. and Google cases had been discouraged from targeting this market.
Do you want more information on the above? Do you want to discuss the implications of this decision on your business? Feel free to contact me, Giulio Coraggio.
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