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Italy Approves Piracy Shield VPN/DNS Proposal, Risk of Prison For ISPs Intact [Updated] Italy's Senate Budget and Finance Committees have approved amended legal proposals that require VPN and DNS services located anywhere, to block pirated content flagged by rightsholders. Other service providers, including ISPs, will face prison for failing to report "known" criminal conduct. A vote on the text is scheduled for today and the new legislation could be in place in less than a week. https://torrentfreak.com/italy-approves-piracy-shield-vpn-dns-proposal-risk-of-prison-for-isps-intact-241001/

Hello! We regret to inform you that we will be discontinuing the service to residents of Italy as of February the 19th, 2024. From the above date, any user registering on the platform must declare that he/she is not a resident of Italy. The purchase page will have IP address-based geolocation and will not be served to IP addresses located in Italy. We will not interrupt the service to current subscribers until the natural expiry date and the refund policy will be granted as usual. REASONS FOR DISCONTINUATION The so-called "Italian Piracy Shield" is a legal framework with implementing regulation by AGCOM (Italian Telecommunications Authority) that forces operators offering services in Italy to block access to end services through IP blocking and/or DNS poisoning. The list of IP addresses and domain names to be blocked is drawn up by private bodies authorised by AGCOM (currently, for example, Sky and DAZN). These private bodies enter the blocking lists in a specific platform. The blocks must be enforced within 30 minutes of their first appearance by operators offering any service to residents of Italy. There is no judicial review and no review by AGCOM. The block must be enforced inaudita altera parte and without the possibility of real time refusal, even in the case of manifest error. Any objection by the aggrieved party can only be made at a later stage, after the block has been imposed. For further details: https://www-wired-it.translate.goog/article/piracy-shield-agcom-piattaforma-streaming-pirata-calcio-segnalazioni/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp The above requirements are too burdensome for AirVPN, both economically and technically. They are also incompatible with AirVPN's mission and would negatively impact service performance. They pave the way for widespread blockages in all areas of human activity and possible interference with fundamental rights (whether accidental or deliberate). Whereas in the past each individual blockade was carefully evaluated either by the judiciary or by the authorities, now any review is completely lost. The power of those private entities authorized to compile the block lists becomes enormous as the blocks are not verified by any third party and the authorized entities are not subject to any specific fine or statutory damage for errors or over-blocking. By withdrawing service availability from Italy, AirVPN will be able to stay outside the scope of the framework and maintain integrity and efficient operations. We certainly sympathise with our fellow Italian citizens, and we will be happy to offer advice and alternatives. We would also like to remind them of our more than ten years of support for the Tor network, which is freely accessible even from Italy, and which is becoming increasingly reliable and fast thanks to a myriad of small contributions like ours. Kind regards and datalove AirVPN Staff

Tallinn and Stockholm servers are the best and fastest for me. Lately, I’ve been using Latvian servers more often, as their IPs were refreshed this year and are not blacklisted by YouTube and other sites yet. However, I worry they might get blocked in the future. Regularly changing VPN server IPs could be a good strategy to avoid such blocks.