14/09/2011

The net? It should be free, yes, but not at the expense of authors’ rights. Those were the words of the director-general of SIAE – Italian Association of Authors and Editors, Gaetano Blandini, speaking during the Venice Film Festival at the meeting on 'THE MISSING MARKET. Authors, producers, navigators on the island of the web'.

All the speakers at the meeting promoted by the SIAE, together withANICA and the Venice Days and in collaboration with Nova/Sole 24 Ore, agreed that it was necessary to promote the legal provision of works on the internet.

"It is not enough to stop works from being broadcasted on the internet", Blandini said. "But it is necessary to spread a culture of legality and the SIAE, which protects the works of more than 90,000 authors, should be the first to do so."

For Blandini, it was important to make it clear that the payment of a fee to authors is not a tax but a reward for work done, that is, creating the work. ANICA PresidentRiccardo Tozzi explained that the "enemies" were not the children who download films or songs from the internet, but the large piracy industries. He underlined that the internet is not just a place for expression and communication, but a market where goods are exchanged, among which number those that are protected by intellectual property. "But no profit is generated on the net these days, because these goods travel for free. Cinema’s future is in the film halls. Unfortunately, as long as there is an alternative between a free product and one you pay for, people will continue to opt for the free one."

For Telecom Italia – said Telecom Vice President for Antitrust & Consumer Issues Francesco Nonno – authors’ rights must be safeguarded. "We are concerned with the internet also becoming a market within which legal transactions take place. It is important to come to a legal provision. Telecom Italia is investing in creating platforms that are able to do this, as for example Cubovision, also thanks to the agreement with the SIAE.”

For blogger journalist Luca Sofri, director of Il post, "the system and the market have changed and nobody will gain in the same way as before. New technologies have in any case created a supply. I would no longer use the word theft, nor accusatory campaigns, which lead to nothing."

(Translated from Italian)