Italy's 'Piracy Shield' Anti-Piracy System Launches, Applies To All DNS and VPN Providers (torrentfreak.com) 39
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: A document detailing technical requirements of Italy's Piracy Shield anti-piracy system confirms that ISPs are not alone in being required to block pirate IPTV services. All VPN and open DNS services must also comply with blocking orders, including through accreditation to the Piracy Shield platform. [...] Italy's Piracy Shield anti-piracy system reportedly launched last week, albeit in limited fashion. Whether the platform had any impact on pirate IPTV providers offering the big game last Friday is unclear but plans supporting a full-on assault are pressing ahead.
When lawmakers gave Italy's new blocking regime the green light during the summer, the text made it clear that blocking instructions would not be limited to regular ISPs. The document issued by AGCOM [...] specifically highlights that VPN and DNS providers are no exception. "[A]ll parties in any capacity involved in the accessibility of illegally disseminated content -- and therefore also, by way of example and not limitation -- VPN and open DNS service providers, will have to execute the blocks requested by the Authority [AGCOM] including through accreditation to the Piracy Shield platform or otherwise implementing measures that prevent the user from reaching that content," the notice reads. [...]
The relevant section of the new law is in some ways even more broad when it comes to search engines such as Google. Whether they are directly involved in accessibility or not, they're still required to take action. AGCOM suggests that Google understands its obligations and is also prepared to take things further. The company says it will deindex offending platforms from search and also remove their ability to advertise. "Since this is a dynamic blocking, the search engine therefore undertakes to perform de-indexing of all websites/telematic addresses that are the subject of subsequent reports that can also be communicated by rights holders accredited to the platform," AGCOM writes. "Google has shared a procedural mode for the communication of the blocking list, and the Company has also committed to the timely removal of all advertisements that do not comply with the company's policies, having particular regard to those that invest the promotion of pirate sites referring to protected sporting events."
When lawmakers gave Italy's new blocking regime the green light during the summer, the text made it clear that blocking instructions would not be limited to regular ISPs. The document issued by AGCOM [...] specifically highlights that VPN and DNS providers are no exception. "[A]ll parties in any capacity involved in the accessibility of illegally disseminated content -- and therefore also, by way of example and not limitation -- VPN and open DNS service providers, will have to execute the blocks requested by the Authority [AGCOM] including through accreditation to the Piracy Shield platform or otherwise implementing measures that prevent the user from reaching that content," the notice reads. [...]
The relevant section of the new law is in some ways even more broad when it comes to search engines such as Google. Whether they are directly involved in accessibility or not, they're still required to take action. AGCOM suggests that Google understands its obligations and is also prepared to take things further. The company says it will deindex offending platforms from search and also remove their ability to advertise. "Since this is a dynamic blocking, the search engine therefore undertakes to perform de-indexing of all websites/telematic addresses that are the subject of subsequent reports that can also be communicated by rights holders accredited to the platform," AGCOM writes. "Google has shared a procedural mode for the communication of the blocking list, and the Company has also committed to the timely removal of all advertisements that do not comply with the company's policies, having particular regard to those that invest the promotion of pirate sites referring to protected sporting events."
And yes, it's very effective (Score:5, Funny)
Yes. Absolutely. Nobody can circumvent that. Perfect piracy prevention. What a bummer for all pirates.
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Prediction: You'll soon see a crapload of shitty apps that (successfully) help circumvent this ridiculous measure. In no time, all non tech-savvy italians will have one of them, dutifully loaded with viruses and trojans.
The net result for Italy won't be what they hoped for.
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Prediction: You'll soon see a crapload of shitty apps that (successfully) help circumvent this ridiculous measure. In no time, all non tech-savvy italians will have one of them, dutifully loaded with viruses and trojans.
The net result for Italy won't be what they hoped for.
Limewire wasn't exactly what the kids were hoping for either when it came to downloading the hottest viruse, er I mean "music".
History repeats itself, because humans never change.
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Re:And yes, it's very effective (Score:5, Interesting)
Dunno about Italy. but in my neck of the woods almost nobody pirates music anymore. The advent of Spotify and Apple Music were the Port Royale earthquake for music piracy here. There are a few stubborn people who hang on and pirate just to be ornery. But for the most part music piracy has been dead for years because it's so easy to get the music you want to hear legitimately that few people bother to even look for pirated versions.
But on the video side, the copyright cartels seem to be stuck on stupid and there is no Spoitify or Apple Music for movies and TV. The tolerance for having the shows you watch scattered across half a dozen different streaming services is fading. And the attitude of: "It's not on Netflix? Well, screw it. I'm not going to go on a hunting expedition for it. I'll just set sail for The Pirate Bay." is coming back in full force. Movie/TV piracy has never thrived so much as I see these days. And, lets be honest, unless you go full "great firewall" no amount of shenanigans on the part of the cartels will stop someone with internet access from finding and fetching what they want off the internet. The copyright people *COULD* render the vast majority of piracy instantly cold and dead with no blocks or laws or harassment, of course. All they have to do is just replicate the music side and release their catalogs to be available on Netflix and Apple TV, easy peasy. But I would bet that they won't because they're stuck on all that aforementioned stupid.
Not enough return from a Netflix release (Score:3)
The reality is that the royalties paid by Spotify are absurdly low, and fail to provide an adequate income for musicians producing music except the massively successful.
The amount that Netflix would pay for the rights to these additional titles probably wouldn't cover the production costs - so at the moment a single streamer isn't going to fly. Probably we will get there eventually - or we may see Amazon's approach of selling individual episodes and films becoming more prevalent. But at the moment the payba
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This has (mostly) always been true. The process for creating professional-sounding music is much easier and more accessible to individuals than the process for creating professional-looking television or videos. Music is probably the most saturated, over-supplied market in the world so will never be profitable for the majority of practitioners.
This is probably one of the reasons why 'Spotify for TV' doesn't exist, and why the multitude of services only contain a sliver of available content even for studios
Good reply (Score:2)
Thank you
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Spotify you say? I see the kids using YouTube and TikTok for music.
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Dunno about Italy. but in my neck of the woods almost nobody pirates music anymore. The advent of Spotify and Apple Music were the Port Royale earthquake for music piracy here. There are a few stubborn people who hang on and pirate just to be ornery. But for the most part music piracy has been dead for years because it's so easy to get the music you want to hear legitimately that few people bother to even look for pirated versions.
I'm guessing your neck of the woods isn't Italy... I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest you're in a well populated, well served area of the US?
Regional content blocks are a huge issue outside the US, so much is "not available in your region (unless you pay £2.99 per episode)" that it's just easier to pirate, even if you do pay the danegeld the "rights holders" can still decide to revoke your rights and have Amazon/Netflix/Et al. remove the content from your library.
So outside the US, piracy
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The law is mainly aimed at the dozens of platforms that stream (near) live football matches. We're talking about Italy, remember
Re: And yes, it's very effective (Score:1)
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Nope. Doesn't work. People who would be thwarted by this already don't pirate. Because to them, the minor hurdles that are currently in place to get content illegally is already enough to make them go "screw this, I'm gonna sub to (insert streaming provider here)".
And those that aren't bothered by few hurdles aren't bothered by insignificantly higher hurdles either. If anything, overcoming them is some sort of status symbol on the schoolyard.
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And those that aren't bothered by few hurdles aren't bothered by insignificantly higher hurdles either. If anything, overcoming them is some sort of status symbol on the schoolyard.
This. They readily accept the challenge and will be smarter for it. Plus the average Italian ten year old is orders of magnitude more tech-literate than the average Italian politician. Actually the same could be said for ten year olds and politicians everywhere.
including VPN (Score:1)
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Fascism is in their blood (Score:5, Insightful)
Accreditation to be allowed to run a DNS resolver that compiles and delivers publicly available information? It always starts with reigning in access to information.
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Accreditation to be allowed to run a DNS resolver that compiles and delivers publicly available information? It always starts with reigning in access to information.
Take a step backward and think about the risks involved with enabling AGCOM to execute a "block" by first requesting a copy of the last 12 months of DNS records. From everyone who used that DNS regardless of any relation to pirated content.
Smells a lot like the "justification" for US law enforcement to abuse Stingray devices whenever any crime happens.
Never underestimate a wolfs wardrobe options.
Re:Fascism is in their blood (Score:4, Informative)
It takes a few seconds to setup on Windows or Linux. It's easy on your home ADLS modem for the entire house. And it's possible but a little trickier on Android. No idea with Apple.
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>"The solution is obvious: use a DNS external to Italy"
Is it that obvious? The next step, I would imagine, would be for Italy to require all their ISPs to block traffic to any other DNS servers other than the "approved" (controlled) ones. Not that one couldn't just start working around that, too, but that doesn't make for a "few seconds to setup".
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>"The solution is obvious: use a DNS external to Italy"
Is it that obvious? The next step, I would imagine, would be for Italy to require all their ISPs to block traffic to any other DNS servers other than the "approved" (controlled) ones. Not that one couldn't just start working around that, too, but that doesn't make for a "few seconds to setup".
You'll forever be playing whack a mole with DNS forwarders and CNAMES, same as countries that try to block porn using the same measures... The porn sites just set up a different domain and serve the same content. Torrent sites have already been using this.
Hell, most browsers now have inbuilt VPNs that get right around ISP based restrictions.
Italians, whilst lovely people, are not known for their unyielding dedication to job completion, to put it nicely. The Italian government doubly so.
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Accreditation to be allowed to run a DNS resolver that compiles and delivers publicly available information? It always starts with reigning in access to information.
To be fair, most Italians are not fascist.
Their current government is however, the Brothers of Italy are neo-fascists with their roots in Musolini's fascist party. They're the largest party in Italy's parliament, but keep in mind with Italy being a multi party democracy this amounts to just over 25% of the vote gaining 119 of 400 seats (201 required to form government). They've had to form a coalition with other centre-right parties and have been having embarrassing failure after failure since.
Italy's
This will surely work. (Score:2)
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Step 0: Some $ACTIVITIES are considered illegal by law of $COUNTRY.
Step 1a: A law is passed in $COUNTRY that requires $SERVICE providers to take some measures to prevent or hamper $ACTIVITIES or face penalties. -- you are here
Step 1b: providers of $COUNTRY comply.
Step 1c: citizens of $COUNTRY start or continue using international providers of $SERVICE.
Step 2a: International providers of the same $SERVICE are asked to comply or face penalties.
Step 2b: they don't.
Step 3: A government organization is founded t
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Step 6: VPN providers end up in the list. See step 4a. ...
I guess Italian ISPs will have to block the DNS root zones also?
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Tampering with DNS is one of the easiest to attempt but definitely not the only means of web site blocking that governments will try.
Three words: (Score:1)
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"leave the kids alone"
but let their mother to die in horrible pain when a pregnancy goes to shit for some random naturally occuring mishap...
fucking murderers
VPN Routing (Score:1)
I'm going to purposely route pirated content through Italian servers just to fuck with them. Not that it would actually mean anything though.
And this will work (Score:2)
A way to deplatform any open discussion site! (Score:2)
(Oops. Wrong word.) (Score:2)
... Google will automagically disable the site's advertising (demonitizing the entire site)
Oops. "Demonitize" is the wrong word for that, as it's denying them traffic and exposure, not money for displaying their content (which is a different branch of Google.)
We're talking about Italy here... (Score:2)