Abstract

Starting from the experience of digitizing some museum collections, the contribution aims to reconstruct the national and european regulations on access and reuse of digital cultural heritage. Second, after tracing the academic and political debate questioning the adequacy and effectiveness of the national codictic legislation concerning the lucrative forms of use of reproductions by private entities, and the policy trends found in our country and abroad, the contents of the National plan for the digitization of cultural heritage and the attached guidelines recently adopted by the Digital library and the even more recent ministerial Guidelines for the determination of fees and charges for the concession of use and reproduction of state cultural property are critically exposed. Finally, some critical notations on the economic exploitation of reproductions, by both public and private entities, are made from the consideration of the material and mindset changes produced by the coming into existence of the digital environment and markets.