EU Digital Copyright Law and the End-User

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.