Access in Italy to the Swedish-based file-sharing site Pirate Bay has been unblocked. The site was blocked in August by Italy’s Guardia di Finanza (Fiscal Police) in the northern Italian town of Bergamo, following a ruling by a local court.
Lawyers acting on behalf of Pirate Bay in Italy appealed and their claims were subsequently reviewed by Bergamo’s Tribunale del Riesame (Review Tribunal), which ruled in the site’s favor. It was blocked from Aug. 10 to Sep. 24.
Enzo Mazza, president of Italy’s major labels representative body FIMI and the country’s main anti-piracy organisation, FPM, who campaigned for Pirate Bay to be blocked, tells Billboard.biz: “We’re not really in a position to comment on the ruling until we hear the tribunal’s motivation for making it. This should be made public in a few days’ time. For all we know, the reasons could have been procedural.”
Access to Pirate Bay had been blocked in Italy in August on the grounds that the site contravened Italian copyright law. At the time some pro-Pirate Bay commentators in Sweden denounced Italy as “a Fascist state.”
