Since Monday, the most popular Russian social network in Italy has become unavailable. Cause? Pirate link to the latest film by Italian actor and screenwriter Kekko Zalone. "In accordance with the new provisions of Agcom (Office of Supervision of Communications in Italy), this situation is absolutely normal," commented Italian lawyer and journalist Guido Scorza.
On Monday, November 18, a social network VKontakte was blocked in Italy for copyright infringement, along with nine other sites (mainly Internet archives). Responsibility for this lies with the incorrigible Kekko Zalon - at least with his statement it all began. Or, more likely, according to the administrators of Siliconrus.com, Medusa Film insisted on the blocking, since links to a pirated copy of the movie "The sun is pouring like a bucket", which collected about 50 million in Italy, were found box office.
The Rome prosecutor’s office also requested the blocking of the IP addresses of several other sites, such as VKontakte, known for illegally distributing copyrighted records.
For the most part, these are music archives: movshare.net, nowdownload.ch, nowvideo.ch, rapidgator.net, topvideo.tv, upshared.com, usefile.com e videopremium.tv. Moreover, some of them are very popular and have long been included in the black list of the American Film Association.
However, the question of the legality of interference in the activities of such a large-scale social network as VKontakte remains open. Indeed, on the one hand, a social network is a means of communication for modern people, on the other hand, it is an Internet portal from which it is more than easy to download a pirated record.
What are Facebook, Twitter and all photo-social networks now risking in such cases, which, incidentally, occur daily?
“The current situation is proof that in this area it would not be necessary to use harsh preventive measures so quickly,” comments Guido Skorca, lawyer and online copyright consultant. “On the other hand, we are clearly shown that a system has already been established in Italy "Enforcement of copyright. In December, the new provisions of the Office of the Supervision of Communications in Mass Media (Agcom) will enter into force, which will elevate such situations to the category of ordinary events." However, the measures of influence, according to Skorts, should be selective, and not total: "There should be the ability to block only one page, and in this case it will really be a fight against piracy," he explains. "Otherwise, why on VK then blocked and Facebook isn’t? Because of popularity. In the first case, the prosecutor’s office did not realize that they want to block them, and I don’t blame them. In the second case, it’s obvious that if such a situation happens, the investigation will be more thorough, and the measures impacts are thoughtful. "
Despite a statement by Speaker of the House of Deputies Laura Boldrini, who advocated parliamentary intervention in the development of new rules and regulations, will be signed in the first half of December and the copyright control project developed by Agcom will come into force in February. Although he caused a lot of controversy, but thousands of requests for the removal and disclosure of personal data without the participation of a judge did their job. “I doubt that with the intervention of Parliament, this law could be used,” concludes Skorca. “Yes, ordinary courts will gain the necessary powers, but in fact it will be faster, cheaper and more reliable to turn to Agcom, as usual.”
For PC users: if you are blocked and you can’t log in to the VK social network, you just need to change the DNS address to 8.8.8.8
Residents and our readers in Italy are advised to look for alternative ways to log in to VK through anonymizers.
