1. Cultural Heritage Law & the PD
A preliminary review of the Italian legal setting
Federico Morando (federico.morando@VariousMailProvidersIncludingGoogle)
These notes are licensed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 unported license

2. Main source of law
 Legislative Decree 42/2004 (Code of Cultural
Heritage and Landscape)
 Since this law applies to cultural goods, it's
important to define them...

3. Cultural (heritage) goods
 Art. 10, par. 1, specifies that “cultural (heritage)
goods are the movable and immovable things
property of the State, the regions and other
territorial public administrations, and any other
public entity or institution or non-profit private [!]
entity, which show artistic, historical,
archaeological or ethno -anthropological
interest.”

4. i.e.
 Par. 2 offers a list of specific cultural (heritage)
goods, including ”a) the collections of
museums, pinacoteques galleries and other
exhibition venues owned bu the State, the
regions, other territorial public bodies and any
other public entity or institution; ...(omissis)”.

5. ...and, to be sure:
 Par. 3 mentions a series of objects that,
because of their intrinsic artistic interest, are
declared to be cultural (heritage) goods upon
action of the appropriate branches of the
Ministry.
 eg., art. 12, par. 1 states that “movable and
immovable things... which are works of a died
author and the creation of which happened more
than fifty years ago, are subject to the dispositions
of this Title... (omissis)”

6. ...and surer:
 Other norms ensure that everything which is
older than 50 years and has some kind of
”archeological” context (including remnants
from the II WW, for instance) is a cultural
heritage good.

7. OK, almost every interesting old stuff is a cultural
good... and so what?

8. An ambigous Law provision
 Art. 107, titled Instrumental and precarious use
and reproduction of cultural (heritage) goods,
states at par. 1:
 “The Ministry, the regions and other territorial public
administrations can consent to the reproduction and
to the instrumental and precarious use of the
cultural (heritage) goods of which they are
custodians, without prejudice of the
norms/dispositions of par. 2 and of the norms
concerning copyright and authors' rights.”

9. A unambigous Ministerial Decree
 This rather general norm has then been
specified by the Ministerial Decree of April 20,
2005 - “Guidelines, criteria and modalities for
the reproduction of cultural (heritage) goods,
following art. 107 of Legislative Decree n. 42 of
January 22, 2004.” In particular, art. 3 of this
Ministerial Decree states that “the reproduction
of cultural (heritage) goods is authorized by (or
“subject to the authorization of)” the responsible
of the Institute which is custodian of such
goods...”.

10. A quasi-property right...
 Article 5, par. 2, introduces some other relevant
limitations concerning “the material related to
cultural (heritage) goods and apt to be further
reproduced (photographic printing, negatives,
slides, films, etc.)”, which “cannot be
reproduced or duplicated with any means,
technique or procedure, without prior
authorization of the administration which is
custodian of the good and without prior
payment of the related fees...”

11. Art. 5. - Condizioni
 1. Prima della diffusione al pubblico, un esemplare di ogni riproduzione e' depositato presso
l'amministrazione che ha in consegna il bene, per il preventivo nulla osta. Salvo diverso accordo,
all'amministrazione spettano tre copie di ciascuna riproduzione, oltre ai negativi ed alle matrici delle copie
medesime.
 2. Il materiale relativo ai beni culturali ed idoneo ad ulteriori riproduzioni, (stampe fotografiche,
negativi, diapositive, film, nastri, dischi ottici, supporti informatici, calchi, rilievi grafici ed altro) non
puo' essere riprodotto o duplicato con qualsiasi strumento, tecnica o procedimento, senza preventiva
autorizzazione dell'amministrazione che ha in consegna il bene e previo pagamento dei relativi
canoni e corrispettivi. Restano altresi' salvi eventuali diritti e compensi agli autori e ai terzi.
 3. Ogni uso delle copie ottenute, diverso da quello dichiarato nella domanda, e' autorizzato
dall'amministrazione che ha in consegna il bene.
 4. Ogni esemplare di riproduzione reca l'indicazione, nelle forme richieste dal caso, delle specifiche
dell'opera originale (nome dell'autore, bottega o ambito culturale, titolo, dimensioni, tecniche e
materiali, provenienza, data), della sua ubicazione, nonche' della tecnica e del materiale usato per la
riproduzione. Esso riporta altresi' la dicitura che la riproduzione e' avvenuta previa autorizzazione
dell'amministrazione che ha in consegna il bene, nonche' l'espressa avvertenza del divieto di ulteriore
riproduzione o duplicazione con qualsiasi mezzo.
 5. L'amministrazione che ha in consegna i beni e' esente da ogni responsabilita' per danni a persone
o cose, provocati o comunque connessi alle attivita' di riproduzione e di diffusione al pubblico degli
esemplari riprodotti.

12. A purpouse bound world
 Then the Ministerial Decreee details the
essential elements which should characterize a
demand of reproduction, including (and starting
from):
 the purpose of the use (art. 4, par. 1, letter a)) and
 the quantity of copies that will be produced and
made avaialable on the market (art. 4, par. 1, letter
b)).

13. Say ”Bye” to CC and most UGC
 Even if no payment is due if a cultural heritage
good is reproduced for purposes of personal
usage or study or if it is used by other public
entities to valorize the good... but still the
authorization is required and purpose bound.
 Not a great setting for unexpected creative
usages from ”somebody out there”

14. Simplifying a bit:
 Anything which is somehow interesting and old
enough not to be protected by copyright is quite
likely to be a cultural (heritage) good!
 For instance: culturally and artistically relevant
buildings in Italy are seldom (legally) illustrated on
Wikipedia: their pictures are either copyright
protected or subject to the Code of cultural heritage
(or both!)
 The legal department of the Uffizi museum in
Florence sent a warning to the Italian Wikimedia
chapter...

15. ...and if you're paranoid:
 Old pictures of works of art collected in public
archives can be cultural heritage goods
themselves
 From the point of view of copyright (rectius: related
right on mere photographs), their protection would
expire after 20 years...
 ...but if they're older than 50 years...

16. Caveat
 I'm not skilled in constitutional law, but the
Italian Constitution should not leave much
leeway for creation of new property rights by
Ministerial Decree...
 If the Code of cultural heritage is interpreted in
a restrictive way, it's the Ministerial Decree that
introduces limitations on ”copies of copies”...
 and this part – de facto extending the protection
erga omnes (eg. also against people scanning a
more than 20 years old picture of a public domain
painting) – is the theoretically most troubling one...