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 […]
In August 2025, the Italian Competition Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato) published a preliminary report of the findings of the IC57 – Scholastic Publishing Fact-Finding Investigation. Today, COMMUNIA made a submission in response to the preliminary report (available as a PDF file). COMMUNIA welcomes the the preliminary report, as it overlaps with […]
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 […]
On June 11th, the Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart largely upheld the 2024 decision of the Regional Court of Stuttgart, confirming that the Italian Cultural Heritage Code cannot be enforced outside of Italy. While the appellate court, like the lower court, did not directly address whether the Code aligns with EU law, its ruling nonetheless […]
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 […]
On June 18th, we hosted our first online salon in 2024 on the hollowing out of the Public Domain through cultural heritage laws with a particular focus on Italy. In recent years there have been a number of problematic court cases around the commercial reuse of Public Domain works held by Italian cultural heritage institutions. […]
Today, COMMUNIA is releasing Policy Paper #20 on the right to use Public Domain heritage (also available as a PDF file), in which we address the restrictions imposed by a number of Member States on the use of reproductions of Public Domain works. The cultural heritage laws of Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Slovenia […]
On Tuesday, June 18th, 15:00-16:00 CEST, we invite you to an online salon on the alarming development of the hollowing of the Public Domain through cultural heritage laws with a focus on Italy. Under the Italian cultural heritage code, many uses of cultural heritage held in Italian collections are contingent on authorisation and the payment […]
The Italian Ministry of Culture has taken legal proceedings in Italy against a number of commercial uses of Public Domain works held in Italian collections. Defendants included GQ Italia (for using Michelangelo’s David on a magazine cover), Jean Paul Gaultier (for using Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus in a clothing collection) and, of particular interest […]
