Legal Environment

Two of the primary legal concerns in ICT are protection of intellectual property and privacy. Italy is guided in these areas by European Union directives, and has taken steps to harmonize its own policies to these. In the area of privacy the relevant directive is 2002/58/EC Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications and in the area of intellectual property protection the relevant directive is 2001/29/EC . The EU's protections in this area are considered to be among the strongest in the world. However, effective policy does not itself ensure effective enforcement. The BSA Study reports that 50% of software used in Italy in 2004 was pirated. This is considerably higher than the EU average and suggests that more enforcement attention is required. To increase government effectiveness in IP issues, Italy has set up 12 IP tribunals, widened the definitions of IP to include, for example, denominations of origin, and increased sanctions against individuals.

Among the major features of Italy's privacy policy:

• Organizations required to notify the government when processing "high-risk" information such as health or credit related
• Individuals do not have to demonstrate that damage or distress has been caused as a result of a data protection breach
• Restrictions on transferring personal data outside of the EU
• Electronic marketing in all forms(phone, email, fax, SMS, etc) is opt-in;organizations must obtain prior consent

Source: Garante Privacy

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