A Milan court has rejected a request from Mediaset that telecommunications operators be required to monitor sites that illegally stream live football broadcasts, according to a statement from industry group Asstel. Mediaset had requested that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) be ordered to take down the calcion.at site and all links thereto, accusing the site of hosting streams to football matches for which it owns the exclusive rights, but the court issued a decision on 28 July confirming that operators weren’t responsible for the conduct of third parties.
Asstel president Dina Ravera welcomed the ruling on behalf of the operators TIM, Vodafone, Wind, 3, Fastweb and Tiscali, saying it was consistent with European Court of Justice case law. “The judge’s decision fully reflects the expectations of the operators who in their efforts to work convincingly together for the protection of intellectual property rights cannot be held responsible for conduct of others, or be assigned a supervisory burden that does not belong to them, or be ordered to implement measures that fail to take into account the correct balance between the need for protection of intellectual property rights and other fundamental rights,” said Rivera.
