Buying pay TV subscriptions on a pirate website is not a crime, but it makes you liable to a fine more modest administrative violationas long as electronic devices are made strictly personal use. This was decided by the second criminal section of the Court of Lecce at the end of a trial against several citizens residing in Salento the crime of receiving stolen goods was contested for having purchased IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) subscriptions online for streaming viewing of encrypted and copyrighted paid programs and products.
The defendants
For the moment, only a part of the 23 defendants have succeeded against the television giants Mediaset Premium, Sky, Dazn, Disney Channel and RTI (Italian television networks), the latter having formed a civil party invoking compensation for damages of at least 80 thousand euros to burden of the accused. According to the accusatory theorem, users would have purchased subscriptions on the web in an illicit manner.
The sentence
The Court accepted, however, the arguments of the lawyers Pompeo Demitri, Luigi Suez, Riccardo Cuppone, Gabriele Borlizzi, Fabio Ruberto and Francesco Piro. The defenders pointed out that their clients had already been inflicted pecuniary sanction foreseen for the violation of article 174 ter of law 633 of 1941 on the protection of copyright. The only one foreseen, when the crimes foreseen by articles 171 and following of law 174 do not also contribute, including duplication, reproduction, transmission, unauthorized diffusion. Prosecutor Maria Vallefuoco had requested the indictment. To support their theses, the defenders cited rulings from the Court of Cassation and the Constitutional Court. The defense theses were accepted by the judge of the second monocratic criminal section, Bianca Todaro. All the other defendants who chose lavenue of summary judgmentthey will, however, have to appear in court on November 12th.
