Italy: Adopted Legislative Decree implementing EU DSM Directive including online platform content liability measure

On 5 November 2021, the Council of Ministers approved the Legislative Decree 8 November 2021 n. 177, which transposes article 17 of the EU DSM Copyright Directive. The article provides that online content-sharing platforms face direct liability for copyright-infringing content posted by their users. In order to avoid liability, online content-sharing services will be required to get authorisation from right holders for works covered by copyright protection. Platforms will have to prove that they received permission and that they removed unauthorised content after getting a notification. It also requires platforms to take measures to allow users to employ copyright exceptions to properly make protected material available to the public. Article 17's transposition does not include any ex-ante safeguards for users' rights, such as requiring disputed uploads to be taken down during the complaint process.