Newbie questions

["Castiello Restituta" <rcastiello@interfree.it>]

Dear all,

I'm working with an educational non-commercial project in my institution
(Italy) that involves copyright clearance of loads of copyrighted works
including photos, clips from movies, TV and radio shows and songs. After
long readings of documentation I still have some doubts on basic points.

Here they are:

- Since in the United States works created by corporative subjects are
copyrighted for 95 years after their first publication while in the
European Union they are mostly copyrighted for 70 years after their first
publication what jurisdiction must be enforced if I'm using a work of art
that was first published in USA but I'm using it in Italy? Is the work of
art copyrighted for 70 or 95 years in my country? Is it possible that a
work of art is copyrighted in one country and in the public domain in
another?

- I'm not quite sure of the role of SIAE which is the organization which
exclusively manages authors' rights in Italy. On their web site they are
clear about the fact that if an author has registered with them or with
any other foreign rights managing organization with wich they are
affliated, they are the only ones entitled to release licenses for the use
of works of arts by those authors. This is true expecially for music.
Let's say, if I want to use a song from the songwriter XY published and
distributed by Warner Music, I cannot contact Warner directly for the
emission of the license but I have to contact SIAE??

In one case Warner, in fact, agreed to release a licence for the use of
one song but recommended me to contact the publisher as well to ask for
the publisher's license. Do I have to contact SIAE when it comes up to
publisher's rights?

I'm not quite sure these questions are OT or not. I will be grateful to
those who could help me dissolve the fog in my head concerning
copyright...

Restituta