Licensing & Rights Management

Italian rights clearance runs under Legge 633/1941, the Italian Copyright Law. SIAE (Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori) is the main collecting society for music. IMAIE covers related rights for performers, and Nuovo IMAIE handles the residuals. Productions filming in Italy or building Italian distribution usually need a few core clearances. These are synchronisation rights from SIAE for any score or library cue, master-recording clearance from the label, footage licences from Rai Teche or Istituto Luce for archive material, and trademark releases for any brand seen inside a shot.

Our rights coordinators map these duties against the script in pre-production. They flag the obvious music and clip clearances. They also flag character and book-adaptation rights when you adapt Italian literary sites, image rights for well-known Roman landmarks under fee schedules, and Vatican-managed religious visuals that sit outside SIAE.

Our workflow starts with a clearance memo that ranks each rights question by risk and lead time. We front-load the music and archive items, because Italian rights holders often respond slowly during August and the Christmas holidays. The team then negotiates sync, performance, and mechanical fees with SIAE and the labels. We draft bilingual licence agreements that satisfy both Italian and US E&O insurers. We also work with co-producers when MiC tax credit eligibility ties to Italian-owned rights percentages.

We structure distribution rights to maximise revenue across areas. That covers broadcast windows for Rai, Mediaset, and Sky Italia, theatrical windows handled through ANICA, and streaming deals run against the sites's standard chain-of-title needs. Ongoing tracking catches unauthorised use across digital channels. It then feeds enforcement workflows when needed. The deliverable is a complete chain-of-title file, ready for any Italian distributor, TV network, or global backer to inspect.