Italians who simply view pirate IPTV via illicit subscriptions have been warned for months that their activities could be reported to the judicial authorities for potential prosecution. As part of an investigation into a pirate IPTV subscription seller, a total of 23 people have appeared in court in recent months for simply buying a pirate package. Judges in two separate proceedings have now acquitted all 23 after concluding that this type of piracy isn’t actually a crime.

  • MudMan
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    214 hours ago

    For them? Sure, maybe, although the top end of the fine bracket, as per the article, is 5000 eddies, so… probably won’t stay cost-effective long.

    But the point is the headline suggests personal use of paid pirated media is legally supported in Italy, which it’s… not.

    I still think the current system needs fundamental reform and while this whole ordeal doesn’t say much about what is and isn’t allowed in the current system, it does show what a clusterfuck of enforcement and regulation this is at the moment.

    • richmondez
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      310 hours ago

      That is a fair point though honestly I don’t think the end user should be on the hook at all, it should be the people providing the service as they are the ones effectively running counterfeit streaming services.

      • MudMan
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        18 hours ago

        Agreed, although apparently plenty of governments don’t think the same thing.

        • richmondez
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          17 hours ago

          I don’t get it, most of the streaming providers they are protecting are foreign companies, if anything piracy is keeping more money in the local economy so why go so hard on IP laws above and beyond any treaty requirements?

          • MudMan
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            26 hours ago

            A main driver of this was Mediaset, which is actually Italian. Seriously, the article is right there. I didn’t know about it before I read it, either.

    • You have to be a special kind of stupid to pay for this kind of service with your personal card. But if you get caught a second time then I can’t have any sympathy for you.

      This situation reminds me of that drug dealer (always in italy) that accepted payments for his merch using his own POS (idk the word in English, it’s one of those terminals to accept payments with cards).

      • @eRac
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        612 hours ago

        POS is an English acronym. It stands for Point of Sale. The proper term would usually be POS Terminal, but it’s often shortened to POS.

          • @iSeth@lemmy.ml
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            111 hours ago

            Does Italian have a certain way to pronounce acronyms? Plenty are pronounced in English. Eg: laser

            • I’m not native italian so take this with a grain of salt. All the acronyms I’ve heard in italian are pronounced as you would pronounce that word if it was Italian. Weirdly enough, they include a lot of English words (not acronyms) in their daily vocabulary and they pronounce those in English.