Italy is set to require VPN and DNS providers to block access to pirated content within 30 minutes-what is either a football game or any other live event, on-demand movies and TV series included.
The country’s communication regulator AGCOM approved the new anti-piracy measures on Tuesday, February 18, 2025 in a major boost for the existing anti-piracy system. Italy enforced the so-called piracy screen early last year specifically to fight Live Sports Piracy Mostly via IP blocking.
The news comes as French streaming giant channel+ is considering blocking VPN use to prevent citizens from bypassing the country’s anti-piracy tactics. However, some of the best VPN providers in the market argue that targeting against their services risks undermining people’s internet freedom instead of solving online piracy.
What is Italy’s piracy screen?
Italy enforced its piracy system in February 2024 to prevent citizens from accessing live sporting events through pirate places, especially football matches. To do this, legal holders may require piracy-related domain names and IP addresses suspected of copyright infringement is blocked within 30 minutes.
While the Italian anti-piracy system has been shown to be effective so far, tech companies have raised concerns with EU authorities about multiple overpowering events.
Still, industry criticism wasn’t enough to stop Agcom’s mission. The country’s communication regulator now wants to extend the scope of its piracy system even further to tackle the pirate copy that affects the film and audiovisual industries.
As the Agcom commissioner wrote Massimiliano Capitanio in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday: “With the decision that was voted today, the fight against piracy is taking another step forward.”
Online pirate and VPNs
Among the new Agcom goals, “To extend the blocking order to VPNs” is certainly what is set to create the most discussions.
A virtual private network (VPN) is security software that encrypts all Internet connections and SPOOF uses users’ real IP address. While most people use VPNs in Italy and beyond to increase their online privacy, their IP-spoofing skills also allow users to bypass anti-piracy restrictions.
This is precisely why French legal holders have presented as Protonvpn, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfhsark and Cyberghost with litigation trying to block VPN access to people who want to violate the country’s copyright law.
The targeted VPN companies plan to fight against France’s streaming giant’s request, which assesses the trial “illogically” and warns that this would have “sweeping consequences” for internet security and privacy for people in France.
In turn, Italy has not shared how VPN providers are expected to meet the new requirements. Nor is it clear whether this is technically possible for companies that drive non-log VPNs that allegedly cannot see what users do when they are connected to their service.
We have contacted some of the most popular VPN providers who ask for comments and will update the page accordingly.
