The Italian authority for protection of personal data stated in a press release dated March 13, 2008, that private companies could not legally monitor peer to peer traffic to identify and prosecute users of these networks.
This position of the Italian follows the Peppermint case in which a German company had commissioned a Swiss company in order to raise the IPs of people making available copyrighted works on which it was the right holder.
The Italian authority recalls that such activity is inconsistent with existing laws as well as the European directive protecting personal data. It has ordered companies who used to this type of monitoring to destroy all collected data before March 31 this year.
Internet: illegal spying of users exchanging music files and games (in Italian, March 13, 2008)
http://www.garanteprivacy.it/garante/doc.jsp?ID=1497236
Internet: Case Peppermint: illegal spying of users exchanging music files and games (in Italian, Feb. 28, 2008)
http://www.garanteprivacy.it/garante/doc.jsp?ID=1495246
Peppermint, the authority responsible for the protection of personal data protects users of P2P (in Italian, March 14, 2008)
http://punto-informatico.it/p.aspx?i=2221923
Italian File-Sharers Let Off The Hook (17.03.2008)
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i4b1f1f7f2a01d2b3c04136a266ca9813
The civil court in Rome rejected an appeal presented by Peppermint and Techland (Italian, 17.07.2007)
Http://www.adiconsum.it/index.php?pagina=notizia&idarticolo=275&categoria=7