Illegal streaming, Cloudflare will have to provide customer and user data

The text of the judgment, rich in legal arguments, is a document that is destined to become a reference for similar cases in the future. The Chamber specified that the protection of audiovisual rights is a core value to ensure the economic sustainability of professional sport. The Lega Serie A, as the holder of broadcasting rights, demonstrated how piracy has eroded the economic basis of multi-million dollar television contracts, with negative impacts on the quality of investment in the sport and its media coverage.

In particular, it was emphasised that the infrastructure provided by Cloudflare was not a passive element of the network, but an active component that, through ad hoc functions, allowed pirate sites to circumvent the blocking tools ordered by the court. Cloudflare's lack of preventive or control measures, but also after the instanzed received, was therefore interpreted as a form of co-responsibility.

The Lega Serie A has enthusiastically welcomed the measure that goes to hit a phenomenon that takes hundreds of millions of euros from the sports industry every year (around 300 for Serie A alone) undermining the possibility of reinvesting in infrastructure, talent and initiatives for the public. "The full acceptance of our complaint against Cloudflare confirms the validity of the reasons of those who fight to protect legality - said Luigi De Siervo, CEO of Lega Serie A -. Cloudflare was also obliged to communicate all the names of those who exploited pirated IPTV transmissions to watch matches without paying, leaving indelible traces in the network of their IP addresses. We have now reached a decisive turning point: not only have the providers of network access services been convicted of carrying illegal content, but also the end user, now easily identified, will be prosecuted under the law. The use of pirate platforms is not only an illegal act, it is an attack on the work of thousands of honest people, those who choose this path kill the future of football and sport, we cannot accept that what we love is destroyed'.

"It is a result of great importance, a fundamental step in the path towards the fight against piracy. The order of the Court of Milan - reads a note of the Serie B - certifies how legitimate were the requests that Lega Serie A and Lega Serie B intervened ad adiuvandum together with Sky Italia and Dazn made in their time to block the domains in the name of Cloudflare, invoking how it favoured piracy and therefore illegality in the transmission of A and B football championship content".

Dazn comments: "We express our satisfaction with this umpteenth battle won against piracy. We know that this is a further important step within an articulated strategy that is being implemented and aimed at combating this criminal phenomenon. In addition to the blocking of illegal platforms thanks to Piracy Shield, the numerous actions of the Public Prosecutor's Office against those who sell piracy, but also against those who buy it, have been joined by actions on end customers such as sanctions. Now this ruling, which comes after the one in France, confirms how, within the criminal chain of piracy that specifically exploits certain services, everyone has a responsibility. Technology must be at the sole service of the lawful enjoyment of content'.