The judicious social. The Italian case-law on the liability of Internet Service Providers

Abstract

This paper investigates some of the most relevant issues raised by the recent Italian case law about the civil liability of the Internet Service Provider (ISP). The Judgement in the case seems problematic for what concerns the distinction between the so-called “active” and “passive” hosting provider. In particular, the weakest part of the verdict delivered by the Court of Justice in Rome, at least from the legal-argumentative point of view, is the one in which the judges qualify the hosting providers’ activity as “active” starting from the knowledge of illegally published content. This kind of solution does not seem in accordance with the e-commerce discipline and the recent European directive on the copyright.