Italy has adopted a legal amendment to extend the term of exclusive rights for simple photographs from 20 to 70 years, a drastic shift that may cause serious damage, unless corrective action is taken. For decades, Italian copyright law has recognised the dual nature of photography: creative photographs, protected as full copyright works for 70 […]
On September 18, 2025, the Italian Senate definitively approved the country’s first comprehensive framework law on artificial intelligence (AI). The new law also reflects Italy’s commitment to aligning its domestic legal system with the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689), ensuring coherence between national rules and the emerging European regulatory framework. Law no. 132 […]
We have extensively followed the saga around the Italian cultural heritage code, as evidenced by a series of blog posts on lawsuits involving commercial uses of Public Domain works in Italian collections (Galleria dell’Accademia Firenze v. GQ, Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia v. Ravensburger, and Uffizi v. Gaultier). In late September, a bottle of vinegar added […]
In Italy, the use of images of cultural heritage in the Public Domain is still subject to heated debate. This blog post provides an update on the situation, presenting a recently adopted ministerial decree, which facilitates the use of such images in scientific publications. While the decree is a step in the right direction, it […]
The implementation of Article 14 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive (CDSM Directive) in Italy raises a number of questions regarding the protection of the Public Domain. This article explores these questions by analysing the relationship between Article 14 of the CDSM Directive and the Italian Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape […]
Last Friday, news broke of the order taken by the court of first instance of Venice on a precautionary judgement served by Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia, a public museum under the Italian Ministry of Culture. At stake: a Ravensburger puzzle representing the famous 1490s drawing Vitruvian Man by Italian Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci. The […]
The legislative decree implementing the CDSM Directive in Italy was adopted on November 8th, 2021, and published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale on November 27th. It came into force on December 12th, 2021, amending the Italian Copyright Law (April 22nd 1941, n.633 – Legge sul diritto d’autore, referred to below as “LdA”). This blog post analyses […]
