Has Italy’s Piracy Shield Really Worked?

 Italy's Piracy Shield has become one of Europe's most aggressive attempts to tackle illegal streaming.

The system was introduced in February 2024 to allow rights holders and authorities to rapidly block websites and IP addresses being used to distribute pirated live content. By early 2026, Italian regulator AGCOM said more than 65,000 domain names and around 14,000 IP addresses had been disabled through the system.

But there is an important question: has all this blocking actually reduced piracy?

How Piracy Shield works

Piracy Shield is designed to react quickly when illegal live content is identified.

Rights holders can submit details of the suspected source through the platform. Once authorised, blocking orders can be distributed to the relevant service providers, preventing users in Italy from accessing the specified domains or IP addresses.

The system originally focused heavily on live sports, particularly football. Its scope has since expanded. From 2025, Italy extended the system to cover other live audiovisual content, including films, television programmes and entertainment broadcasts.

The attraction is obvious: instead of waiting for a pirate website to be investigated and taken down, access can potentially be blocked within minutes.

The numbers look impressive

There is no doubt that Piracy Shield has generated an enormous number of blocks.

AGCOM reported approximately 55,500 blocks by June 2025. By early 2026, that figure had risen to more than 65,000 FQDNs and around 14,000 IP addresses.

On paper, that looks like a huge success.

But the number of blocked addresses isn't the same thing as the number of pirate services that have permanently disappeared.

Pirate operators can move services to different domains, servers and IP addresses. Blocking one address doesn't necessarily remove the underlying operation.

The problem with IP blocking

One of the biggest criticisms of Piracy Shield concerns shared IP addresses.

An IP address can host more than one website or service. Blocking that address can therefore affect legitimate businesses that have nothing to do with piracy.

Research published by RIPE NCC Labs found significant collateral damage when examining Piracy Shield blocks. In June 2025, researchers identified more than 500 confirmed legitimate websites affected by the blocking system, with the number of affected sites increasing over time.

There have also been high-profile incidents involving legitimate online services being blocked accidentally, including a Google Drive-related address in 2024. AGCOM subsequently warned rights holders and ordered greater care when submitting blocking requests.

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