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'Pirate' Movie Streaming Sites Declared Legal By Italian Court (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by msmash on from the stating-it-clear dept.

A Court of Appeal in Rome has overturned a 600,000 euro ruling against four unlicensed sites that offered streaming movies to the public. From a report: When it comes to passing judgment on so-called 'pirate' sites, Italy has more experience than most around Europe. Courts have passed down many decisions against unlicensed sites which have seen hundreds blocked by ISPs. Today, however, news coming out of the country suggests that the parameters of what defines a pirate site may not be so loosely interpreted in future. It began in 2015 when the operator of four sites that linked to pirated movies was found guilty of copyright infringement by a local court and ordered to pay more almost 600,000 in fines and costs. As a result, filmakers.biz, filmaker.me, filmakerz.org, and cineteka.org all shutdown but in the background, an appeal was filed. The appeal was heard by the Rome Court of Appeal in February and now, through lawyer Fulvio Sarzana who defended the sites' operator, we hear of a particularly interesting ruling. "The Court ruled that the indication of links does not qualify as making direct disposal of files protected by copyright law," Sarzana told TF in an email.

23 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. It won't last by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The various *AA lobby groups won't let this stand.
     
    You'd think they'd bought enough politicians worldwide to ensure rulings like this couldn't happen.

    1. Re: It won't last by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It probably won't last, but it is correct in that linking to a torrent (mostly magnet links) does not constitute copyright infringment.

  2. The law was the problem by pablo_max · · Score: 5, Interesting

    IMO, if a very large portion of a population does an action which is technically illegal, but no one considers it wrong, then clearly it should not be illegal.
    Will allowing piracy mean that music and movies will disappear? No, of course not.
    It just means that shit, mass produced movies and music, designed purely to make money "may" disappear. There will always be people who do a thing just for the thing. Art for the love of art and not to become rich.

    1. Re:The law was the problem by encad · · Score: 1

      There might be a difference between thinking and acting. And if >50% of you populace act in a way that is considered illegal you should rethink the law.

    2. Re:The law was the problem by chuckugly · · Score: 4, Informative

      If rights holders would reap the profits for a decade or MAYBE two and then our cultural artifacts would enter the public domain, as the system was intended to work, people in general would likely respect copyright a lot more. As it is rights holders have perverted the law to the point where the goal of the enforcement of the right of first sale (to ensure the public can enjoy the arts) is no longer even widely recognized as the goal. We have what should be illegal extensions of copyright terms, schemes that restrict and/or outlaw the consumers right to second sale, and all sorts of other infringements promulgated and implemented by a corrupt system. No wonder people don't respect copyright restrictions any more.

    3. Re:The law was the problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Why wouldn't you tax the people with the money? Do you try to get blood from a stone? Water from the desert?

    4. Re:The law was the problem by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      If you tax a rich person you are assured that they will still have a house, they will still eat, they will still be mobile and they will have money to enrich themselves and their children to create opportunities for themselves. When you tax a poor person, not so much.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    5. Re:The law was the problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      IMO, if a very large portion of a population does an action which is technically illegal, but no one considers it wrong, then clearly it should not be illegal.

      Ah. I see you are not a lawyer. Think about speeding. If everyone drives at 100 miles an hour shouldn't the speed limit be 100 miles an hour? Laws are made to protect people, and in this case the people being protected are the movie producers.

      Will allowing piracy mean that music and movies will disappear? No, of course not.

      Will allowing people to drive at 100 MPH mean people will get where they want to go faster? Of course it does. That's not the point. The point is Will People Be Harmed? In both cases the answer is yes.

      It just means that shit, mass produced movies and music, designed purely to make money "may" disappear. There will always be people who do a thing just for the thing. Art for the love of art and not to become rich.

      Did you just suggest that pirating is a "good thing" BECAUSE it takes money away from people, and then make a VALUES JUDGMENT about what sort of movies deserve to be made based solely on your personal tastes?

      Son, take my advice; stay away from the law.

    6. Re:The law was the problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I find that in human history, one hundred percent of the time that someone says "art for the love of art and not to become rich", that they are about to rip off an artist.

    7. Re:The law was the problem by Neuronwelder · · Score: 1

      Very well put. I feel that the 70+ years of copyright laws is almost your - if not all of your lifespan. So it might as well be infinite.. If the rotten piracy laws triumph.. I will just do without purchasing them because: Charging $2.00 (or less) a movie is more than enough to make a decent profit. More people will be prone to impulse buy it. With a wider buying audience, their profits will be equal, if not better, than what they had before.

    8. Re:The law was the problem by Altrag · · Score: 1

      very large portion of a population

      This is your problem. We're redefining "population" to mean "big companies." In the same way that the Romans only cared about people who owned land (well, men who owned land,) we're running headlong into only caring only about people who run giant companies.

      I suppose we're one step up on the Romans though -- we treat women as 82% of a person instead of 0%.

  3. My thinking on the issue... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I should be paid for and own that which I create. You? Not so much.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    1. Re:My thinking on the issue... by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Most people don't deny that.

      What we get annoyed with is when some faceless company you sold your rights to for a (relative) pittance wants to get paid for what you created 70+ years after your death.

      And as it stands, DRM'd works can technically never be released into the public domain even after their copyright expires unless someone with an unencrypted original decides to release it, because decrypting it is illegal under the DMCA.

      It's an open question whether or not someone (illegally) breaking the DRM and releasing a copyright-expired work will allow that ripped version to remain in the public domain or if only a legitimately released version will qualify. And it'll remain an open question for another 60ish years since nothing released (only) with DRM can possibly expire until around 2070.. assuming the copyright terms aren't extended yet again by that point (and Mickey Mouse is set to expire again in another few years, so we can bet that issue will be hitting congress again fairly soon.)

  4. Common sense victory by Khyber · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Linking is the core idea of the internet. To kill it means to kill the internet as it exists.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  5. Bad headline. by msauve · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, streaming sites are still illegal. They ruled that providing links to streaming sites is not illegal.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    1. Re:Bad headline. by DickBreath · · Score: 1

      The links provided by the pirate sites should not be illegal. After all, I want to avoid pirated content. A link is like you telling me where the local crack house is, so that I can avoid going near it. By getting thousands and thousands of links from pirate sites, I can avoid piracy on a big scale. Especially if it is searchable. What movie do I want to avoid pirating today? Um, oh, that one! Search for link, clickety clickety click. Ah, here are five links to that movie so that I can, um, avoid them today.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  6. Re:Italian courts... by dstyle5 · · Score: 1

    Italians are known to frequently climb in and out of large green pipes, throw turtles at things and dress up like raccoons so this doesn't seem too far fetched.

  7. I had no idea it was illegal by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    I mean, it wasn't a great movie but to ban it outright seems harsh...

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  8. Arr by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    Going after pirates is like starting another drug war, but against something that doesn't really destroy lives or kill anyone.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  9. Pirate Movies by Neuronwelder · · Score: 1

    Won't people get tired of watch movies with pirates in them?

  10. Some good news by Penmyemotions+ · · Score: 1

    The links provided by the pirate sites should not be illegal. After all, I want to avoid pirated content. A link is like you telling me where the local crack house is, so that I can avoid going near it. By getting thousands and thousands of links from pirate sites, I can avoid piracy on a big scale. Www.Penmyemotions.com shares with the world knowledge ranging from relationship advice,Poems to scam prevention tips and others.

    1. Re: Some good news by Penmyemotions+ · · Score: 1

      Home Change "www.penmyemotions.com"

  11. Re: Streaming Sites Illegal, Not Links to Them by GargamelSpaceman · · Score: 1

    I am thinking in particular of 123moviesfree.whateverthetldtheyhavetodayis

    They live behind Cloudflare and presumably pay money to them for the bandwidth to stream movies illegally.

    Also things like animeland.tv that do the same.

    I must admit I use these things and often it's stuff that I have access to but which doesn't work. For instance I subscribed to Funimation's site because my daughter loves anime. But the site is so slow that the movies are unwatchable. I guess since the same stuff is available illegally for free on animeland.tv I don't feel guilty since a legal site has my cash even if the site itself doesn't actually deliver what I paid for.

    Also 123movies works more reliably than Netflix. Even if the movie is available on netflix, I tend to watch it from 123movies.

    If I was a total leech I'd just cancel all my paid subscriptions to shit and watch everything illegally with no ads.

    In fact I wonder how these illegal sites can provide such excellent bandwidth/reliablilty without making any money. My adblocker seems to block all their ads.

    I wonder if it is a state actor funding these things to attack hollywood.

    If so, I don't mind. I tend to hate Hollywood with a burning white hot passion these days.

    I will pay for shit if I care it gets made on amazon or whatever. Or patreon. There's nothing that's worth watching that needs a budget too big for the honor system.

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    ...