The complaint by Assoprovider, the association of Proximity Operators, regarding the draft law against the illegal distribution of content protected by copyright

30/06/2023 – "The Senate is about to approve the bill against the illegal distribution of content protected by copyright through electronic communication networks. If the text were to be translated into law of the State, its application would have no effectiveness in combating audiovisual piracy; on the contrary, it would result in a high risk of data security, the loss of investigative autonomy of the judiciary, and another certain outcome: the cancellation in one fell swoop of small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the sector.” This is the alarm raised in a statement by Gian Battista Frontera, president of Assoprovider – Associazione Provider Indipendenti – following the conclusion of the joint Senate Committees' work on Bill 621, which will now go to the floor for the final vote.

Over two thousand companies at risk

“Over 2000 companies and more than 10,000 highly specialized employees are at risk, who have been providing services for decades in the most peripheral areas of the country, in the internal and mountainous regions, those considered market failure areas where large enterprises are not present, playing a valuable and irreplaceable role with their own financial resources in bridging the serious gap of digital divide, or the existing gap between those who have access to information technologies and those who are excluded," continues the president of the Association, which brings together more than 200 small and medium-sized companies in the sector located throughout the national territory.

"We carry out with dedication a meticulous, widespread, daily work, based on proximity and relationship with the customer, which the Legislator should facilitate with appropriate incentive and simplification regulations, by listening to those who have been working in the field for decades. This has not happened, despite our repeated requests."

"It is unacceptable that the State, instead of following the path outlined at the European level and promoting a more rapid spread of digital culture even in those low-density areas, acts in the opposite direction. Targeting 'proximity operators' – it continues – means not only affecting the most disadvantaged local communities, further increasing the residential and productive abandonment of entire geographical areas, but also contradicting the fundamental principle that the size of companies should never be a reason for entrepreneurial/productive discrimination." 

The request of Assoprovider

"A country that wants to grow and keep pace with the most advanced economies, with innovation as its horizon, must be able to foster maximum synergy between companies of different sizes and from different geographical contexts."

“Parliament still has time to prevent this disaster. We call on the senators to take responsibility and therefore to step back by not approving this extremely harmful bill. On our part – concludes Frontera – we will express our radical dissent in every possible form to protect the sector and the principles that have always inspired our work."