Piracy Shield Blocking of IPTV Player Revoked After Investigation

A recent incident in Italy underscores the controversy surrounding Italy’s anti-piracy law and its latest tool for removing online piracy websites, the Piracy Shield.

Italy’s Piracy Shield law enables rightsholders to block content they believe infringes on their rights without judicial oversight. This system minimizes friction in blocking content, allowing rightsholders like DAZN to enforce blocks immediately without due process.

However, it also raises concerns about potential overreach and wrongful blocking since checks from telecom regulators, like AGCOM, are often bypassed until complaints are filed.

DAZN, the global sports streaming service, recently filed a complaint against two popular IPTV Players operated by SmartOne, claiming their platforms facilitated piracy of its Serie A broadcasts.

On August 18, 2024, DAZN flagged SmartOne’s domains with Italy’s Piracy Shield, leading to an immediate block by Italian ISPs. DAZN provided AGCOM with statements supporting its claims, noting that the sites were “unequivocally intended for the violation of copyright or related rights of audiovisual works”.

Two days after the block was put in place, SmartOne filed an objection to these claims, stating that they do not sell or host any content on their websites.

The domains (DNS) belong to a Smart TV application, it’s a player and entertainment application agreed and approved by so many TV manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Hisense, Toshiba, VIDAA OS and so many others.

We don’t sell any contents and IPTV data, our domain includes the IPTV word and might cause confusion for so many parties, but we can provide any info or proof to show that we don’t offer any piracy contents or illegal contents. We hereby request to remove our domains from the block system: tizen.smartone-iptv.com, lg.smartone-iptv.com, and any other domain related to smartone- iptv.com…

If you visit the official site for SmartOne, you will see the disclaimer noting that they are only a video player and do not host any channels, subscriptions, or content related to IPTV Services.

AGCOM reviewed DAZN’s claims, including accusations that specific IP addresses linked to SmartOne were hosting pirated streams. AGCOM found no conclusive evidence directly connecting SmartOne’s servers to the unauthorized broadcasts, observing that third-party users supplied any problematic content.

DAZN maintained that SmartOne’s player indirectly facilitates piracy, asserting that the app enabled access to pirated streams hosted on external servers. Despite lacking direct evidence, DAZN argued that SmartOne’s functionality and structure indirectly promoted piracy.

In a counterargument, DAZN stated that these platforms play a vital role in the distribution of pirated content.

It is important to underline that, although Smartone-IPTV may initially appear as a simple generic player, the evidence collected and uploaded to the Piracy Shield Platform clearly indicates that it plays not only a Player role, but also an active role in the distribution of abusive content.

AGCOM considered both sides of the argument and made a decision based on the evidence it found.

AGCOM Revokes the Block but Mandates Future Compliance

After a thorough review, AGCOM ultimately sided with SmartOne, determining that DAZN’s evidence failed to tie SmartOne directly to the pirated streams.

On September 2, AGCOM lifted the block on SmartOne’s domains, allowing Italian users to once again access these online applications, and use them for their intended purposes.

In fact, the IP source of the illegal video streaming traffic, as it appears in the report, is not directly attributable to the smartone-iptv.com domain but corresponds to companies that manage gateway services, as shown by the reverse DNS query…

Considering that the company SmartOne IPTV, although having, through the reported FQDNs, enabled access to illegal content present on third-party servers, does not originate said content through its own servers.

However, AGCOM’s ruling came with a significant caveat: SmartOne must now proactively prevent its users from accessing DAZN content, adding a layer of operational complexity.

For SmartOne, this stipulation means that its app must either prevent any potential piracy on the part of its users or face the risk of further blocks. Given that users can upload their own IPTV playlists, ensuring total compliance may prove impossible without restricting or restructuring its services.

This is the first ruling of this kind that we have seen and it is unclear whether or not we can expect similar outcomes in the future. SmartOne can still appeal the ruling at the Lazio Regional Court and we will keep you updated if this happens in the future.

This story was originally published by TorrentFreak.

We want to know what you think of AGCOM’s ruling for SmartOne IPTV Player and the revoke of blocking via Piracy Shield. Let us know in the comment section below!

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