Yahoo! will appeal after the decision of the Rome Court, questioned about the measure to apply to the search engine, guilty of displaying pirate links or streaming in the SERP.
A few days ago we talked about Yahoo!, condemned for pirate links and streaming movies by the Rome Court, following the complaint filed by PFA, the company distributing the film About Elly.
Today we return to the issue because there have been developments: Yahoo! Italy has decided to appeal, explaining the case to the press and public opinion from its own point of view.
Yahoo! points the finger at the concept of freedom of expression on the web: removing pages and forcing search engines to monitor their own SERPs would be detrimental to “free expression on the internet.”
If this is what Yahoo! generally claims, regarding the specific case it provides its version of the facts: Yahoo! actually states that PFA did not specify or precisely indicate either the name or the URL of the sites that allegedly hosted pirate links or the streaming film.
According to this statement by Yahoo!, therefore, PFA did not provide precise data to act on in a targeted way, leaving all the burden of research to Yahoo! itself.
Literally, the communication issued by Yahoo! Italy reads: “Regarding the removal of the links, moreover, the claimant did not provide the name or URL of the illegal sites, despite an injunction in this regard.”
If on the one hand Yahoo! invokes the principle of non-liability of search engines, established by the European Community regarding e-commerce directive, on the other hand, it is impossible not to ask a simple question: why, before aiming for condemnation and damages against search engines, was there no attempt to sue all the sites hosting pirated links? And if this was done, how is this line of action progressing?
Thus, while PFA seems to be preparing to claim a multimillion-dollar compensation from Yahoo!, the search engine is not standing by and shows every intention to defend itself.
We will follow further developments of the case.
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