Italy / piracy: “To be mature enough to pay for football in a legal way” (L. De Siervo)

"Football is part of our lives, we have to be mature enough to pay for it in a legal way, and that also applies to merchandising. We are working with six different companies to trace down and identify illegal servers," said Luigi De Siervo, CEO of Lega Serie A, during a conference on the new Italian anti-piracy law at the Venice International Film Festival (ITA) on 02/09/2023.

This law, which is intended to prevent illegal broadcasting, especially of sporting events, was unanimously approved (140 votes) by the Italian Senate on 12/07/2023. It will enable AGCOM (which approved the provisions of this law on 27/07/2023) to order the shutdown, within 30 minutes, of a website broadcasting content illegally. Penalties of up to €15,000 in fines and three years imprisonment may be imposed on those responsible for such broadcasts, and up to €5,000 for consumers. The law has been in force since 08/08/2023.

"There is now a law and Lega Serie A has provided a platform to take down the pirate websites broadcasting the signals. There will be a trial phase in September. Our contry must take a…