Once, a long time ago, my daughter, who was a little girl, after seeing Mary Poppins he asked me: “Dad, is it true that in the end the good guys always win?”. I remember answering her: “Yes, but sometimes it takes a very long time.” How much time? It depends, sometimes years, many years.
A few days ago the European Court of Justice he issued an important sentence, which concerns us closely, yet it went unnoticed. The European judges say that the rules we have in Italy on the collection of copyright proceeds (books, songs, TV programs) must be rewritten because they represent “a restriction on the freedom to provide services that is neither justified nor proportionate”.
In short, once again and this time definitively, Soundreef won, the startup that Davide D’Atri launched about ten years ago and which has been accused of everything. On the other side there was the prestigious and then very dusty SIAEthe Italian Society of Authors and Publishers, founded in 1882.
D’Atri was a young and brilliant standard-bearer of the digital revolution applied to song rights: he proposed a new way to report ratings, distribute proceeds and also new sources of income for authors. The SIAE was a dinosaur then and reacted very badly by unleashing a ten-year war in various courts. I have kept some things said: (2015), “Soundreef is unable to compete with anyone”; (2018) “It’s as if we, an airbus, feared competition from a bicycle.” And again: (2018) “Soundreef is like a bus that for now travels without a license in our country, that is, illegitimately”.
Alongside this there were dark events, such as industrial espionage by a foreign secret service; and ridiculous, like the video in which the director of the SIAE lets himself be filmed like a samurai with a “Kill Bill” model katana to make it clear that he would tear into pieces those who challenged him.
In the meantime, thanks to competition, the SIAE has changed: has embraced digital and innovation, experimenting with services even in distant frontiers such as blockchain. And the new director general says of the sentence: “The European rules are welcome.”
I think back to Davide D’Atri, who was a boy and has since become a man and runs a successful company despite the unjust war he suffered; and I think that yes in the end the good guys always win, but sometimes it takes a lot of time. For the record: the bicycle beat the Airbus.