News Supreme Court Judgments October 2017

Jail for those who watch Sky without a card

The Supreme Court, in ruling no. 46443/2017, upheld the four-month imprisonment sentence and a two-thousand-euro fine already issued on the merits for a man who had equipped himself to access Sky channels without shelling out anything.

In fact, the man had installed a device with a regularly powered decoder to the home LAN network, connecting the Internet with the TV equipment and the satellite system, thus making the TV channels of the Sky Italia group visible in the absence of the corresponding Smart Card.

Letting your dog bark is a crime

In ruling no. 45967/2017, the Supreme Court ratified the decision made by the trial judges regarding the conviction of a dog owner to a 200 euro fine for the offense under Art. 659 of the Criminal Code: that is, for letting the animal free to bark, thereby disturbing the neighbors.

This is a case involving a young man from Trapani, who did not prevent the continuous barking of his dog, during both day and night hours: a particularly deafening barking, such that it exceeded normal tolerability, emitted outside the owner’s home, in an area used for parking and without a kennel, to the point of disturbing the rest of the people living in the adjoining dwellings.

Hair pulling integrates the crime of personal injury

The pronouncement no. 44375/2017 issued by the Supreme Court ruled that “hair pulling” constitutes the crime of personal injury under Art. 582 Paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code.

Courts of legitimacy thus ruled on the case of a lady who, in the course of an argument that broke out in a bar with another woman and was related to sentimental reasons, violently tugged at the latter’s scalp, causing her injuries that were deemed curable in five days: facts that were evinced by the statements of the offended person, supported by those of another man present, and corroborated by the medical report attesting to the injuries.