Alberto Musso is Full Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Competition Law and Deputy-Dean of the School of Law at the University of Bologna. He also teaches Copyright and Publishing Law in the Masters program directed by Prof. U. Eco. Professor Musso is a member of IP Osgoode’s international advisory council.
Bologna-Rome: Zanichelli-Il foro italiano, 2008, XXII + 472 pp
Diritto di autore sulle opere dell’ingegno letterarie e artistiche (Copyright on Literary and Artistic Creative Works) is a new book by Professor Alberto Musso.
This work examines Articles 2575-2583 of the Italian Civil Code not only with respect to Law n. 633/1941 (Italian Copyright Law), as subsequently modified, but also in relation to recent comparative trends, and to the International and EU principles on the subject (i.e. the harmonization Directives, implemented in the national legislation from 1992 on, the Berne and Rome Conventions, and the TRIPs Agreement and the 1996 OMPI Treaties).
In this framework, the analysis is not limited to the discipline of creative works, but includes related rights and sui generis rights, thus extending to the recent developments of intellectual property, such as the “audiovisual sport rights” included as “Neighboring Rights” in the Italian Copyright Act (Legislative Decree n. 9/2008).
The commentary also deals with owners and users’ rights, the contracts, the sanctions and the Digital Rights Management, operating the necessary balance between the interests to exclusive use and the collective interest to culture (as recently highlighted by the new Art. 70.1bis of Italian Copyright Law on the publishing of low resolution images and music on the Internet for educational purposes, and by the decision of the European Court of Justice, January 29, 2008, C-275/06, on the controversial relation between Copyright enforcement and Rights of privacy, as also applied by the Italian Courts).
The above mentioned book, inter alia, tries to adapt some aesthetic and literary theories in the law, i.e. for understanding what is protectable (or… not protectable) in a “concept art-work” under the idea/expression dicothomy, or if a visual work or even music based upon a literary work may be a (re)creative work rather than derivative under the theories of the “intersemiotic translations”.
Professor Musso’s book is available at:
http://www.dirittodautore.it/page.asp?mode=Libri&IdLib=60
http://www.ibs.it/code/9788808070852/musso-alberto/diritto-autore-sulle.html