The impact of the European directive on authors' rights in Italy

The law which regulates intellectual property, artistic and literary, in Italy is based on the law for authors' rights, in contrast to the Anglo-Saxon law of copyright. Adopted in 1941, it has undergone a number of modifications, in particular in 2000. The European directive of May 2001 on the harmonization of certain aspects of authors' rights and neighbouring rights in the information society was transposed in 2003, and constitutes the most important legislative development in the field. It provides for a list of possible exceptions which the Italian legislator has chosen not to adopt.
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