Italy taking French lessons in copyright law

January 20, 2009 Italy's Ministry of Culture on Tuesday signed an agreement with French officials to cooperate on anti-piracy efforts, and Minister of Culture Sandro Bondi said that Italian laws will follow the French model of providing tight protection for intellectual property and providing specific protections for specific types of technologies. Italian anti-piracy and intellectual property protection laws have been criticized as outdated, in some cases dating to the 19th century, and the problem of pirated films, music, and computer software is more severe in Italy than in most of Western Europe. The Italian government has said that confronting the problem of piracy and other intellectual property abuses a priority.

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