Disney Italy & Creators' Rights

[Botto Armando]

From: Gunnarsson, Joakim SE - HMJ 
> Anyone on the list that can give a summary (in english) of the message
about Italian creators rights that Gianfranco posted last week? Would be
interesting to know what's happening.

Here's a not-so-literal translation:

<< SILF/SLC/CGIL is the only Union in Italy taking care of workers in the
area of comics, cartoons and illustration. It's a part of CGIL, the major
Italian Union (5 million members). Since its foundation (Feb. 5th, 2000)
SILF has been active in proposing law reforms (the one about copyright is
currently being examined by the Parliament), in changing the status of
workers in the field of creative professions (by making those professions
officially recognized by the State, with consequent fiscal advantages and
proper retirement plans), and in helping its members face and win a number
of controversies.

One of these controversies is that opposing Italian authors to Disney
Italia, about the return of original drawings to the artists, and the
payment of royalties for story reprints.

Maybe because of the constant pressure from SILF, Disney Italia have already
modified the contract they offer to authors for "productions with
NON-classical characters", inserting royalties etc.; the same has not
happened yet for "productions with classical characters (e.g., Mice and
Ducks)".

The assembly of authors has decided not to use strikes or public
manifestations to get media support; instead, it was agreed to subdivide the
controversy into two phases. Phase 1 will be about return of original
drawings; Phase 2 will take care of royalties for reprints.

We are currently nearing completion of the first step of Phase1: SILF's
lawyer is about to send to Disney Italia a series of formal requests for
immediate return of original drawings to the authors under SILF's tutelage.
According to the Italian law, which is quite precise about that, those
drawings are illicitly kept by Disney Italia. If, after receiving the
requests, Disney Italia will be willing to discuss with SILF, Phase 1 could
be closed with an out-of-court settlement; otherwise, a proper legal action
will be taken.

To have a rough idea of the value of the drawings in question, let's suppose
200 authors (or heirs of authors) are involved, and each of them has
produced an average of 2,000 pages over 10 years of relationship with
Disney. Considering an average price per page of 150 Euro, we obtain a total
value of 60 million Euro (but the real figure is probably higher). It's
evident that a legal action could turn into a financial disaster for Disney
Italia (and maybe for the Walt Disney Co., major shareholder of Disney
Italia).

Phase 2 will be started immediately after the completion of Phase 1. The
case of royalties for reprints, too, is contemplated by the Italian law in
detail, and the amount of money involved is equally overwhelming. Also in
this case, then, an out-of-court settlement is desirable (also for Disney
Italia's survival).

However, Disney Italia has abruptly stopped the meetings with SILF, and no
further signals came from them. We are waiting to see their reactions to our
lawyer's first letters.

We are aware that the times could be rather long. Maybe a "strike" (like Don
Rosa's, who obviously prevailed) would have been a shortcut, but the authors
preferred to avoid such course of action, and they resolved to go for the
legal action only after the unforeseen unilateral suspension of the
meetings.

SILF still hopes that Disney Italia, in front of our lawyer's requests,
become again available to an agreement satisfactory for all the parts
involved, without putting to risk the future of Disney in Italy. In fact,
SILF has been (and still is) constantly notifying the company management its
willingness to re-open the discussion table. Of course, such re-opening can
take place anytime BEFORE the start of the (costly) legal procedures. 

It should be noted that similar controversies with other publishers have
already been settled, obtaining both the return of the originals and the
royalties on reprints. >>


Ciao,
Armando