Sui generis protection regimes for works in the public domain. Comparative analysis of Swedish, Polish and Italian legislation in the light of EU regulations

Abstract

Restrictions of the public domain against each reproduction such as the domaine public payant and the Italian regulation introduce public law solutions into copyright law. Such publicisation is incompatible with EU law. The Polish and Swedish regulations also deviate from the established copyright paradigm. Due to their significantly narrow scope and the possibility to apply in the case of an infringement, there has not been a wide practice of their application. The difficult applicability of the Swedish provisions may be due to the insufficiently clear general clause contained in the provision. It would need to be interpreted in order to decide definitively on the future of this institution. The Chopin Act, despite being a peculiar exception in the Polish legal order, seems to be a balanced solution for the protection of the composer's work. However, the aspect of the protection of the pianist's image should be abandoned for the same reasons as the Italian ‘perpetual image rights’.