Nuove tecnologie e tutela penale del diritto d'autore e dei diritti connessi. Un'analisi comparata in prospettiva europea ed internazionale

The digital technology and the networked environment have had a strong impact on the production, dissemination, modification and consumption of creative works in digital format. The copyright system is considered one of the most important legal institutions of the modern era, because it facilitates the creation and dissemination of works in the industrial world. The “digital-technology paradigm” influenced, therefore, the political and economic decisions of all legal systems, called to respond to diverse needs of protection and emergency situations. Internet is not only a communication system, but it has created a cyberspace, soon transformed into a virtual market for businesses, which is exposed to greater risks than the traditional model of distribution of copyrighted works, in particular for the decentralized structure of the flow of data and information that characterizes it. The criminal law has had an important role, becoming a frequent instrument used by legislators, both in Italy and the United States. The goal of the doctoral work is both ambitious and complex. In the historical moment in which "the Internet has changed everything" has appeared essential to examine, primarily on the empirical level, the impact of new technologies on the “intellectual piracy”, to understand the phenomenological elements and forms of aggression to the interests protected . Given the complexity of the legal system, the interpretation of the “positive law” and the analysis of its ratio were carried out on the basis of the sources and the models underlying the system of penal sanctions (not only) of copyright in Italy, with a view to the European and international level, which characterizes the Napoleonic period up to the most recent developments. The analysis in comparative perspective, therefore, covered the U.S. experience. The United States have been pioneers in the fight against cybercrime. The federal copyright system has been analyzed not only from the criminal law point of view, but also from the civil law point of view, because there exist many and interesting cases that involve the direct copyright infringement, the indirect copyright infringement and the liability of Internet Service Provider, and the forms of privatization of the "technology" protection. Finally, the ideas for a rethinking of the system of criminal protection of the copyright in the digital age have been based on indices of measuring the effectiveness of the criminal legal system, going beyond the “teoria patrimonialistica” and in favor of a statement about the protection of human rights, even in a “personalistic paradigm teleological”, taking into account the role of the non-legal technological misuses of protection and their impact on the rights of the users and the consumers. The final part of the work was focused on the verification of the areas of operation of the criminal law and the principle of “strict necessity” of protection, for an actual selection of the offences to the interests protected, in perspective of the simplification and rationalization of the criminal law.