More and more attention is being given to the news released by some film magazines according to which the SIAE, the Italian association for the economic protection of copyright, is asking sites and blogs to obtain licenses in order to publish video content with copyrighted audio material, including film trailers.
The license which gives websites the right to publish trailers and other audio-visuals costs €450 per quarter (€1800 per year), with a maximum of 30 trailers per month. The provision was part of an agreement signed on January 17, 2011 by SIAE and AGIS (the Italian General Association for Entertainment), which regulates the use of musical works protected by the SIAE on the websites of cinemas.
However, as the magazine “Corriere della Fantascienza” remarks, the SIAE is also asking online magazines and websites not connected to cinemas to take out licenses.
When speaking to the magazine “Il Post”, the SIAE press office confirmed that it was necessary for all sites publishing music videos, movie trailers and other media that contain copyright protected music to take out a license .
SIAE underlined that with regard to liability there is no difference between videos hosted on website servers or videos embedded from YouTube (or other video portals) through the embedded code. Even though YouTube has already taken out a license with the SIAE for videos posted by its users, external sites that incorporate the same videos are still required to regularize their positions.
Questioned by “Il Post” the SIAE Press Office also stated that the personal accounts of social networks are also subject to the same rule, and that sooner or later they will also have to be regularized. Meanwhile it seems that many social network accounts of public figures and business pages have already taken out a license.
Many network commentators are now protesting against what has been described as an “illogical” rule, as trailers are released free of charge on the net by film distributors to publicize a film and their use is essential for the profits of the SIAE itself. However, to avoid payment of the license, many smaller cinema information sites and magazines have already deleted movie trailers from their pages.
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