In the last days we have heard about the “strange case of the Switzerland” (even if it seem a title for a novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and it’s obviously not!) and its uncommon way of “tolerating piracy”. Someone comments that is because they are still rich and so, even if they download contents illegally, they spend money in culture, buying something else…

But the rest of the World seem to look at the problem in another way…

And Switzerland might become an “Heaven” for pirats, as it has already been for money and finance.

In the last days a US Commission proposed a new law against piracy, the SOPA – Stop Online Piracy Act. The main aim of this new regulatory act is not to oblige the ISP to block the Internet access to “pirats” but to delegate the International Trade Commission in regulating transactions with International subjects.

Even if the field is not free from controversies…

Meanwhile in Italy a great revolution has yet been announced: thank to the “On Air” platform, several films (the less commercial ones) will be contemporaneously in the Cinema and on the Web. The price for a single film (available on the “On Air” platform) will be between €3 and €5.50, that is possible to pay with a normal credit card.

And, last but not least, the Tribunal of Lipsia sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment the administrator of the German pirate website Kino.to, closed last June. He was sentenced because of the violation of copyright and the exploitation of several copyrighted materials to enrich himself (about 300.000 euro from Tv programs and 70.000 euro by
Films).

We can say that this post set itself like a resume of the last weeks.

We would like to underline the most remarkable news concerning Internet regulation and copyright’s protection around the world.

First of all we should signal that last Thursday, 1st December, many newspaper wrote that finally Google blacked out the Pirate Bay website (after BtJunkie and other Torrent sites).

After that we want to show two different context: the French way of thinking and the Swiss way of thinking on the matter.

Concerning France we have to underline 3 news:

1. Last week the French Hadopi announced to engage itself to a “second step” against piracy to get their aims better.
2. The French Ministry Eric Besson announced the foundation of a Digital Observatory. This Observatory will be the institutional instrument to provide reliable data on digital economy and its impact.
3. The French paper “La Tribune” announced last Thursday that French goverment wants to find a way to tax the “Giants” of Internet. Concerning connected television they think that even the “Actors” of the Web have to contribute to the CNC (Centre National du Cinema) budget. And this is not, obviously, simple. The idea is to tax the Internet Service Provider when the Internet traffic” arrives in France.

Switzerland, instead published few days ago a report concerning Internet and its effects on the Swiss economy. The Federal Board is persuaded that it’s impossibile to make reliable estimates on the effects produced by non authorized diffusion of copyrighed materials.  They consider the actual regualtory framework on copyright’s  protection enough to contrast this widespread illegal downloading. They suppose it’s premature to introduce new legal modifications. Emerges from the research that even if consumers download audiovisual materials for free, their budget dedicated to audiovisual
consumption it’s still the same. What they saved from audiovisual products they spent on concerts, cinema and even merchandising. Then, the actual framework is still valid. Instead of production companies have to get used to that new consumers’habits.

Well, just examining these different positions we can of course admit that the matter is very much “sparkling”. The item is delicate but we are convinced that the only way to find a good solution is to “work together”, at International level, as we have already said.