In its sentence no. 55757 of 27/6/2017 (deposited on 14/12/2017), the Supreme Court upheld the sentence of the Court of Appeal of Genoa, which had found the owner of a web radio guilty of the aggravated offence under Article 171-ter paragraph II of the Copyright Law for having abusively transmitted a large number of musical works without paying the royalties due to SCF.
The Court in fact noted the clear groundlessness of all the objections raised by the defendant, since the judges of merit had already ascertained "the actual transmission of 13,668 MP3 tracks by the radio broadcaster" of which he was the owner "without paying SCF, holder of the rights related to copyright, any compensation for the use and distribution of the copyrighted musical works".
The Supreme Court therefore held that the aggravated crime under Article 171-ter paragraph II of the Copyright Law was established and confirmed the sentence imposed on appeal:
- 8 months' imprisonment
- Payment of a fine of € 2,000.00
The sentence once again sanctions the importance of remunerating phonogram producers, holders of the related rights existing on recorded musical works, expressly recognising the fundamental role played by SCF and reiterates that the crime of abusive transmission of phonograms carried out in the radio broadcasting sector is aggravated.