PROTECTION OF BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS

Can we freely write, publish, or tell the stories of famous people?

The Milan Court (Specialized Business Section) recently intervened on this point to settle a dispute between two authors (Antonio Prestigiacomo and Marcello Sorgi) regarding the life of Sicilian Prince Raimondo Lanza di Trabia, the man who invented the football transfer market, who was Rita Hayworth's lover and a friend of Onassis.

In one of the most interesting passages, the Court ruled that, in the case of biographical works of well-known figures, the facts and events that concerned them belong to the common heritage, and are not, in themselves, independently monopolizable. Authorship protection instead falls on the formal choices, stylistic and editorial techniques, through which the author conveys them.

In the case at hand, the Court ruled that actor Antonio Prestigiacomo's play, "The Restless Prince: The Life of Raimondo Lanza di Trabia," undoubtedly enjoys copyright protection. This applies both to its originality and novelty. As for originality, it is the author's personal blend of true facts, including historical ones, and plausible facts, organized and stylistically reworked with a specific technique. The play is, in fact, the product of alternating, within the narrative, question-and-answer interviews, clearly identifiable by the presence of quotation marks, conducted by the author with various individuals who had direct knowledge of the Prince.

However, the Court ruled that, given the identity of the protagonist and many of the events narrated, there is a distance between the two stories, such that they are considered to be autonomous creative works, belonging to different genres, each individually protectable.

In conclusion, Prestigiacomo's work cannot be considered plagiarized from that of Marcello Sorgi, and the biographical works of well-known figures, however, are not, in themselves, monopolizable with reference to the facts and events that concerned them.