FAIR USE v. FREE USES THE CASE OF ITALIAN LAW CLAUDIA ROGGERO ENTERTAINMENT AND MEDIA LAWYER

FAIR USE DEFINITION Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In US, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders. Examples of fair use include commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship. It provides for the legal, unlicensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four- factor balancing test.

FAIR USE 4 FACTOR TEST purpose and character of use nature of the copyrighted work amount and substantiality of the original used in proportion to the whole   effect of the use on the potential market for, or value of, the copyright work

FAIR DEALING Fair dealing a similar but more restrictive concept found in the United Kingdom UK provides for fair dealing in a number or specific cases, whereas US there is only one general provision applies to miscellaneous situations

ITALIAN COPYRIGHT LAW Provisions related to Italian copyright law (diritto d'autore) are found in Law no. 633 of 22 April 1941 (along with its various amendments). Copyright law in Italy has not changed much since the first enactment of these provisions. There have been amendments to Law no. 633 to incorporate specific works such as computer programs and databases, or to add or alter user exceptions, but generally Italian lawmakers have been reluctant to institute any major or fundamental reforms. Italian copyright law is based strongly on authors’ rights. Exceptions to authors’ exclusive rights are limited — there is no provision equivalent to fair use or fail dealing — and are generally interpreted restrictively by the courts

NO FAIR USE IN ITALY Italian copyright law does not have an equivalent to fair use or fair dealing provisions. Limitations and exceptions are set out individually and are interpreted restrictively by the courts, as one would expect in an author's rights regime Specifically, exceptions and limitations are provided by Chapter V of the law no. 633/1941.

SECOND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT DIRECTIVE IPRED2 (Second Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive). The fair use of a protected work, including such use by reproduction in copies or audio or by any other means, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship or research, does not constitute a criminal offence.

FAIR USE FOR EDUCATIONAL OR SCIENTIFIC PORPUSES Permission is granted for the free publication on the internet, without restriction, of images and music of low or degraded quality, for educational or scientific use and only if their is no commercial gain. A decree of the Ministry for Arts and Culture, approved by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Universities and Research and the competent Parliamentary commissions, limits the aforementioned educational and scientific use (art. 70, par. 1/bis);

IN THE MEANTIME….. The author gives to everybody the possibility to use, modify and improve for free his piece of art through licenses Creative Commons Copyleft in Italy “permesso d’autore”: describe the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work.

LUTHER BLISSETT In 1994, hundreds of European artists, activists and pranksters adopted and shared the same identity. They all called themselves Luther Blissett and set to raising hell in the cultural industry. It was a five year plan. They worked together to tell the world a great story, create a legend, give birth to a new kind of folk hero. In January 2000, some of them regrouped as Wu Ming. The latter project, albeit more focused on literature and storytelling in the narrowest sense of the word, is no less radical than the old one.

FROM LUTHER BLISSETT TO WU MING Wu Ming (extended name: Wu Ming Foundation) is a pseudonym for a group of Italian authors formed in 2000 from a subset of the Luther Blissett community in Bologna. In their pre-Wu Ming days, the group wrote the novel Q (first edition 1999). Unlike the open name "Luther Blissett", "Wu Ming" stands for a defined group of writers active in literature and popular culture. The band authored several novels, some of which have been translated in many countries.

CONCLUSION Many artists and “experimenters” fit into existing categories even if they don’t want to.

FINE