link streaming sites are permitted

The online availability of copyrighted files is not, in itself, illegal. This is what the Court of Frosinone recently recognized, annulling a fine of over €550,000 imposed on the operator of websites that allow users to watch pirated films online. Specifically, the judge upheld the appeal against a 2015 order ordering the website to pay an administrative fine for violating Article 171-ter, paragraph 2, letter a-bis of Law 633 of 1941. According to the court judges, copyright infringement on websites hosting pirated films is a violation of the law. link Streaming movies and music is not automatic, but requires an investigation to establish the existence of a profit-making purpose, as required by the wording of Article 171-ter. In this specific case, the judge ruled out the existence of a profit-making purpose, despite the website using advertising banners. Sharing copyrighted files, according to the Court of Frosinone, is a cost-saving measure and not a profit-making activity, and therefore neither the criminal provisions nor the resulting administrative sanctions provided for by Law 633 of 1941 are applicable. "It must be demonstrated that the profit-making activity is connected to the individual work and that it is the consideration for it, otherwise we are dealing with a cost-saving measure and not a profit-making activity," says the website operator's lawyer, Fulvio Sarzena. "It follows that, in order to commit the crime in question, evidence must be gathered of the file sharer's specific intent to derive a significant financial gain from the communication to the public, through the online sharing of protected works, and not merely a cost saving," the curious ruling reads. The judge did not consider there was sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the site's earnings were directly linked to the individual pirated films whose link were available on the site. For the first time, proving the actual profit-making purpose of these types of sites was considered relevant to determining a sanction. Profit-making is the essential requirement for punishability, and according to the ruling, it will no longer be possible to automatically block a site that provides link Directly to streaming movies. But what does Italian copyright law provide, and why is this ruling controversial? The general rule is found in Article 171, paragraph 1, letter a-bis, which states that "anyone who, without authority, for any purpose and in any form, makes available to the public, by placing a protected intellectual work or part of it on a computer network through any type of connection, shall be punished with a fine ranging from €51 to €2,065." This provision, however, is replaced by Articles 171-bis and 171-ter, paragraph 2, respectively, when the case involves the unlawful duplication of computer programs or the duplication, for profit, and sale of copyrighted works. Furthermore, Article 174-bis provides for the addition of an administrative sanction applicable to all copyright violations set forth in Section II of Chapter III of the Copyright Law, and therefore to those behaviors that also constitute criminal offenses. It would therefore appear that the judges of the Lazio Court have rigorously applied the provisions of Article 171-ter, requiring that the profit-making purpose be the result of specific investigative activity, while overlooking the entire regulatory framework within which this article is embedded and the rationale underlying it: to guarantee the author of an intellectual work ownership of the related moral and economic rights. For this reason, until now, web platforms for the dissemination of intellectual property rights have been unable to provide such rights. link for streaming have always been obscured. In this specific case, furthermore, the presence of advertising on the site would constitute the profit-making purpose required by the law, since it is not necessary for each individual link be accompanied by specific advertising. The ruling is already causing controversy, with many calling it a significant step backward in the fight against piracy.