Defamation by means of social networks: the liability of the digital platform for the late removal of defamatory content patronymic
On 15 February 2023, the Court of Milan issued the first ruling in which it held that a so-called ‘social platform’ is liable for having failed to delete unlawful content uploaded on one of its sites. With sentence number 1208, in fact, the well-known American company Meta (owner of the social network Facebook) was condemned to pay damages to three companies, which had sued it for having failed to promptly remove some content, of a clearly defamatory nature, published by anonymous authors on the Facebook pages “Truffa Snaitech” and “Snaitech Truffa” and for which it had refused to provide for deletion, even though it had been requested by the injured parties.
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Artificial Intelligence: positive revolution or risk? Outline of the main legal issues
The rapid evolution of information technologies based on Artificial Intelligence and their application in different sectors has undoubtedly given an impetus to regulatory activity at the European level, which just a few days ago, on 27 April, resulted in a political agreement reached by the European Parliament on the Artificial Intelligence Act, the world’s first regulation on artificial intelligence. This is a legislative proposal to regulate Artificial Intelligence according to its potential for harm, and to provide common rules for the launch of new products and services on the European market in a context of trust on the part of EU citizens. For the time being, the Parliament has confirmed the indications provided in the text proposed by the European Commission, although the measure could still be changed with technical changes before the plenary vote scheduled for mid-June.
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Anti-Piracy Law: Yes from the Chamber of Deputies
On 22 March 2023, the Chamber of Deputies approved, with 252 votes in favour and no votes against, the new text of the anti-piracy law, also known as the ‘anti-piracy’ law, which aims to protect the integrity of intellectual works and the accountability of operators on the network, but above all to ensure the security of telecommunications by targeting sites that illegally disseminate content protected by copyright. Up to now, it has been possible to counter such illegal activities by requesting the blocking and/or obfuscation of a site, with reference to the DNS (Domain Name System). With the new anti-piracy law, it will be possible to block the site directly from the IP address, disabling it. Specifically, the regulatory text allows AGCOM to act by means of a new procedure to disable sites that abusively transmit programmes and content protected by copyright. In fact, at the request of the holders of exclusive rights, AGCOM will have the power to order service providers, including network access providers, to disable content disseminated in unlawful ways by blocking DNS resolution and network traffic to IP addresses intended for unlawful activities.
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Advertising in the age of digitalisation: the new Linear TV Ad Break Replacement in programmematic
Smartclip, RTL Group’s adtech development unit for broadcasters and streaming services for addressable TV and online video advertising, has announced the launch of ‘Linear TV Ad Break Replacement in programmematic’, a technical implementation of the programmatic buying of TV spots within the advertising break on linear TV: it consists of the digital replacement of one or more spots within an advertising break or the placement of a single spot, as well as the delivery of a ‘pre-roll’-like format within the linear TV programme. The company thus sets itself the ambitious goal of replacing the entire advertising interruption or, in any case, individual spots on so-called Addressable TV (which allows specific spots to be delivered to a specific group of TV viewers), enabling brands to reach their audience with dedicated TV spots.
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Equitable liquidation of damages for infringement: the Supreme Court’s recent ruling
The Supreme Court of Cassation, by order no. 8396 of 23 March 2023, ruled on the equitable liquidation of damages for trademark infringement, as well as the criteria to be adopted for its determination. Specifically, the company La Farmaceutica Sas, active in both the health care and parapharmaceutical sectors, and owner of the trademark “Omissis”, properly filed in 2004, had sued the competitor company Italfar Srl, obtaining the ascertainment of the infringement of the above-mentioned trademark as well as a declaration of unlawful competition on the part of the defendant, with the consequent invalidity of the mark “Omissis” registered by Italfar in 2010, an injunction prohibiting further use of that mark, the imposition of a daily penalty and an order to pay damages, assessed on an equitable basis at €5. 000,00. The ruling at first instance was appealed by Italfar, which had raised several complaints, including the loss of effectiveness of the mark owned by the plaintiff company, since it had not been renewed at the expiry of the first registration, the divergence between the marks registered in the respective names of the two companies.
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