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At the end of 2006, the Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM) adopted two decisions (no.169/06/CSP and no.170/06/CSP) imposing fines on two Italian commercial television broadcasters, Retequattro and Italia 1, which were found to have acted in breach of the rules governing the number of advertising breaks allowed in the course of audiovisual works. To this effect, Article 37(4) of the Italian Broadcasting Code (Legislative Decree, 31 July 2005, no. 177) transposes Article 11(3) of the Television Without Frontiers Directive insofar as it stipulates that audiovisual works such as feature films...

The Italian Ministry for Communications has recently signed a new decree aimed at combating child pornography on the internet by obliging Internet Service Providers to block sites displaying illicit content within 6 hours of notification by the competent organ, the Centro Nazionale per il contrasto della pedopornografia sulla rete Internet (the National Centre for combating child pornography on the internet). This organ was created by a previous act (2006), and operates within the Italian Postal and Communications Police, a specialised branch of the Italian Police force. The Centre is invested...

On 22 January 2007, the Italian Corte Suprema di Cassazione (Supreme Court) ruled in favour of file sharing activities where no lucrative intent is involved. The decision caused an initial commotion among Italian users because it was first interpreted as being a revolutionary change of stance. It nevertheless quickly became evident that the Supreme Court’s decision did not actually present any change of stance, rather it derived from the Court’s consideration of the law in force at the time when the events relating to the case occurred. The case concerned the creation, in 1999, on a university...

The European Commission has concluded that the subsidies for digital decoders granted by Italy in 2006 do not violate EC Treaty state aid rules (Article 87(1)). In reaching this decision, the Commission considered the fact that the subsidies were offered for all decoders, regardless of the transmission platforms. In essence, the subsidies were technology-neutral and proportional to the objective of promoting the transition to digital TV and interoperability. However, subsidies granted in 2004 and 2005 (see IRIS 2006-2: 6) did not pass the test of technological neutrality, they were found to have...

On 12 July 2006, the Autorità per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni (Communications Authority - AGCOM) adopted an amendment to the Regulation on advertising (see IRIS 2001-9: 11), prohibiting the increase of the volume levels of advertising messages being broadcast during breaks in programmes. This new provision was implemented on 10 October 2006 when AGCOM defined the first urgent technical parameters to be respected by all national and local broadcasters and on all platforms (terrestrial, cable and satellite). This issue is of importance to Italian broadcasting, both on public and on private channels....