This book draws on the contents of the Ph. D. dissertation I wrote and
defended at the European University Institute (EUI) of Florence. At the
beginning of my - search, I did not expect to write a book on the
intersection between copyright law and digital technologies and, in
particular, on the implications that digitisation presents for the
interests of users of copyrighted works. At that time, I was neither an
expert on new technologies nor an avid user who viewed the Internet as a
"no copyright land" where anyone should download whatever content for
free. Before graduating from the University of Perugia School of Law, I
had established myself as a clarinet player who performed mostly chamber
music and the symphonic r- ertoire. I had also worked extensively as a
radio speaker, music critic and writer with the Italian public
broadcaster RAI-Radio3. In performing all these mus- related activities,
I developed a considerable interest for copyright issues and, when
choosing my dissertation topic, I immediately opted for a work on
copyright law that examined the economic rights of music performers
under the Italian and the EU legal systems. I was very curious to see
how and to what extent the law sought to protect the subtle, particular
kind of creativity and originality embodied in musical performances.
That was my first step towards writing a book on co- right law.
