Prince (Cloudflare): 'This law can make us leave Italy. Blocking the Internet is not justice'

But Agcom only asked you to comply with the law.

It depends on which law. Here we are talking about a scheme that allows private parties to report a site and have it blocked globally within 30 minutes, without judicial supervision. This violates Italian law and EU principles. If a rule is illegal, a company's duty is to challenge it before a judge. And that is what we did. With an outcome worth reporting and putting on the index for how it ended up

What does it refer to? 

Just before Christmas, a judge expressed strong misgivings about the Agcom system and authorised us to access the Authority's internal documents. Immediately afterwards, Agcom imposed a fine on us. We read it as retaliation.

A heavy accusation.

But well-founded. Fining while a judicial review is in progress violates due process. It looks like an attempt to intimidate us and prevent it from revealing how ill-conceived this system is.

The theme remains the fight against piracy. On which you are considered too timid to put it mildly. 

Absolutely wrong. We hate illegal streaming. They cost us money and clog up our infrastructure. We cooperate with sports leagues and rights holders all over the world. But it is one thing to cooperate, it is another to adhere to a blind and dangerous mechanism.

You also contested the amount of the fine.

It is out of scale. The law allows penalties of up to 2% of revenues in Italy. Not of global revenues as it has been done. Here we are 100 times over the legal maximum. If a company is fined more than it invoices in the country, it is rational for it to leave.

Are you really thinking of leaving Italy?

If the fine remains, yes. And this will hurt hundreds of thousands of Italian organisations that use Cloudflare for free: public administrations, hospitals, NGOs. We are even considering suspending pro bono services related to major events.

You have also evoked the Olympics in recent days.

We provide pro bono services that would normally cost tens of millions. We cannot do this in a country that does not treat us fairly. Without us, events of that magnitude become vulnerable.

On social media you commented on the fine with harsh words. In hindsight would you make that choice again?

Yes. When an institution acts in retaliation, the only tool is transparency. Making noise. Ten million people read those messages. Many Italians wrote to us saying that this system is out of control.