(Less than) 60 days to propose amendments to AGCOM draft regulation on copyright protection in audiovisual media services and the internet

By decision no 452/13/CONS of 25 July 2013, the Italian Communication Authority (“AGCOM”) launched a public consultation on its “Draft regulation on copyright on the electronic communication networks“, available here on AGCOM’s website (the “Draft Regulation”).

Notwithstanding its title, the Draft Regulation concernes not only online copyright protection, but also copyright protection in audiovisual media services. In both cases it provides for the possibility, for the holder or the licensee of the infringed copyright / related rights, to commence proceedings before AGCOM in order to have the infringing work removed. In addition, it provides for fast-track proceedings in case of online copyright infringements amounting to a “serious infringement of the rights to the economic exploitation of a digital work” (Section 10).

The Draft regulation does not apply to “downloaders and apps and softwares through which final users directly share digital works in electronic communication networks” (Section 2), whereby “downloader” means “any natural or legal person which, by means of electronic communication networks, downloads a work on its device or on a shared space“. Thus, parties in the proceedings before AGCOM would be the person who uploaded the digital work, the website holder and the internet service provider (Section 7).

The public consultation is now open to the relevant stakeholders, which shall provide their comments and proposed amendments within 60 days of publication of the Regulation (which, as we said, took place last 25 July).