Abstract

As well as many other Countries in Europe and outside Europe, the Italian Copyright Act protects the photographic works only when creative, i.e. expressing their author's personality. In Italy, Germany or Spain, however, between copyrightable and non-copyrightable images, the statutory law allows a second kind of protection through neighboring rights to all "shots", which - although not creative enough - play a documental or historical role of social aspects and so on, while mere photographic duplications of objects remain unprotected at all (e.g. industrial products in a commercial catalogue, the pictures of which may not be copied otherwise by competitors under the law against unfair trade practices); a particular issue raises when other copyrightable works - such as pictures, sculptures or even architectural works in a landscape - are "portrayed" on their turn in a photography, especially for postcards or artistic volumes. The Author tries moreover to stress a line and a "parallel coordination" between the requirements for protection under the Copyright Law and the requirements of "merit" and "rarity" for the protection of photographs under the Law of Cultural Goods and Public Heritage.