“Copyright Administrative enforcement through ISP, without Judicial review, by Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM) , generates an enormous increased access to the singles protected works and to Blocked sites.”
It’s the conclusion reached by the distinguished Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Padua, Italy, Giorgio Clemente, who analyzed, within a year (2014-2015), the measures taken by AGCOM (the authority of the Communications) against copyright piracy.
The independent report, contains graphs and statistics, showing the monthly access through Search Engines to the every copyright works inhibited through ISP, by AGCOM,.
The Report analyzes the access by Italian users, before, during and after Communications Authority Orders.
The Survey is focused on Torrents, Linking and Streaming Web Sites, for the dissemination of works protected by copyright, in the Movie and audiovisual sector, inhibited through the Italian ISP, by AGCOM, from March 31, 2014, to April 10, 2015, showing that:
– In almost all cases, the Web sites inhibited by AGCOM (see example CINEBLOG-01.NET, CB01.TV, TANTIFILM.COM and ROBINFILM.ME) it can be said, from the graphs and statistics examined, that the sites linked to the same identity of those inhibited, have seen an increase in unique hits from users coming from search engines.
– In a few cases, the accesses to the web sites was stable compared to the run-up to the order of inhibition by AGCOM
– In some cases the increase has had enormous proportions, as for CINEBLOG01.LI and TANTIFILM.NET. (Respectively from 106,000 to 2,294,000 accesses, and from 21,000 to 553,000 users).
– Ease of access to the sites inhibited, favored by the popularity of the site, also obtained by the news published by AGCOM, has helped to increase access to sites that were inhibited.
– The efforts of the Italian ISP (must obey the provisions of AGCOM) are completely thwarted.
– The expenditure of resources and energy leaning intermediaries network seems totally unjustified, and so the activities of the Authority in terms of copyright, given the obvious ineffectiveness of the measures taken.
The activity carried out by AGCOM costs several million every year, between the costs required of providers, the cost of the bureaucratic structure, the activities of management of external Foundation, the communications campaign and so on.
– In many cases brought to the attention of the Authority there is an overlap with the activities of Police and Public Prosecutors, that already operate placing inhibitions access to the same sites.
The number of measures of the authority from March 2014 to April 2015, then in a year from its beginning, was four times lower than the Italian judiciary had done against sites containing Copyright works, in a single day, in December 2014, and Judicial System has obviously any cost for the Collettivity
– The same reports are posted on the website of AGCOM instances visible to all users of the network, which specifies not only the domain names of Web sites as well as the URLs of works considered, favoring the spread of the same also works after inhibition.
After inhibition, in fact, the Web sites that maintain the URL of the work this instance, with a simple “URL Make-up”,as in the following example, taken out of DDA / 250 of January 21, 2015
Examples:
Movie “Delivery Man”
FROM
http://www.cb01.tv/delivery-man-2014/ (Inhibition AGCOM)
TO
http://www.cb01.eu/delivery-man-2014/ (No Inhibition AGCOM)
Laura Pausini Song
http://www.torrentdownload.ws/Laura-Pausini-Inedito-%282011%29- 320Kbit%28mp3%29- DMT/89535BC0C98DDFC783D5DD7D9D9EA8D01FF39308 (Inhibition by AGCOM)
TO
http://www.torrentdownload.co/Laura-Pausini-Inedito-%282011%29-%20320Kbit%28mp3%29-%20DMT/89535BC0C98DDFC783D5DD7D9D9EA8D01FF39308 (NO inibhition By AGCOM)
One can therefore conclude that, in essence, measures AGCOM can be used as an efficient vehicle for “research” inhibited URL, but already available or on the same site (adopting tools circumventing DNS) or on the same site with different extension.
The copyright rightholders, that report sites to Authority are in fact in the position to provide to the netsurfers the road, through the website of AGCOM, to get more quickly to their work, creating a risk of violation infinitely greater than before the application to the Authority
This research confirms, in temporal terms, what has already emerged from the study of March 2015 made by the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies of the European Commission (Online Copyright Enforcement, Consumer Behavior, and Market Structure)
The EU Institute Report, analyzes the consequences of the most important supply-side intervention in Germany, the closure of the web site kino.to, took place in June of 2011
According to this last report the closure of the site has led to a decrease in consumption of piracy, in the first 4 weeks after surgery, from the fifth week was observed, however, an increase in the use of illegal content, or through the sites of illegal content already present, but especially with the entry of new sites of illegal content (so-called Hydra effects)
The measures held by AGCOM add to the “Hydra” and “Replacement” effects, already analyzed in previous European experiences from Incopro Studies and Institute for Prospective Technological Studies,, a consultability direct of single (and entire websites, also), “pirated” works, following the orders given to the Provider, through the official website of the Authority for Communications, creating a continuus and lasting “Streisand effect”.
The Streisand effect is the phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely, usually facilitated by the Internet.
It is named after American entertainer Barbra Streisand, whose 2003 attempt to suppress photographs of her residence in Malibu, California, inadvertently drew further public attention to it. Similar attempts have been made, for example, in cease-and-desist letters, or Authority attempt, to suppress numbers, files, and websites
Instead of being suppressed, the information receives extensive publicity and media extensions.
An effect that is entirely absent from the measures of the Italian Judiciary which, therefore, contrary to those entered into by Agcom, achieve their effects
The works subject of inhibition in fact, in most cases, present the same link reported by the Authority in its measure through a simple redirect.
This increases overall the consultability of “pirate works” on the Internet for users Italians, and increased consultability to specific works asked to applicants for protection, which was not present before the effective date of Rules Beginning on , March 31, 2014, of beginning.
The overall effects of a year of operations, which appear from the data analyzed, can be summarized in a significant increase in access to target sites following the Orders by Italian AGCOM and a consequent increase in online copyright piracy, instead of a decline.
