Marco Chiesa wrote:
Gregory Maxwell wrote:
***Your claim that Italian copyright law does not
permit fair dealing
is incorrect: ***
Under Italian law you are permitted 'abridgment, quotation or
reproduction of fragments or parts of a work for the purpose of
criticism or discussion, or for instructional purposes.'
(see Italian Copyright Act Article 70; Nimmer and Geller (1998-),
Italy, ยง8[2][a])
IANAL, but I'm not sure this can be applied to works of art, photographs
and all the non-text things we're talking about. Last months SIAE
(Italian Society of Authors and Publishers) enforced copyright on an
amateurial art website which was showing contemporary paintings. The
website was describing and commenting these works, so the use of the
pictures was "to illustrate what it was talking about". Still, this is
copyright infringement under the Italian Law. Instructional purposes
means that a teacher can distribute N copies of a copyrighted media to
his/her students, but if you print a book well you have to pay the
copyright owner his/her fair royalty.
It's in the nature of artists' societies to act aggressively, even when
their rights are uncertain. Did the owners of the website even try to
claim fair dealing? We don't know what would happen if somebody with a
reasonable case called their bluff. Just like a poker game.
Fair use is NOT a license.
That's what we've been saying.
It's a way to defend yourself when challenged
about copyright infringement.
More than that, it's a positive defence. You can apply it before you're
challenged
Ec