Into the Wired: Digital Freedom or Piracy? The ECJ's ''Nintendo v. PC Box'' Case Law as an Emblematic Example of Copyright Contradictions in the Information Society

INTRODUCTION My research aims to analyze the impact of the digital era on copyright law’s issues. The advent of the digital world has rewritten rules that were suited for products born in the physical one. Internet has challenged the power of each state to provide equal and proportionate protection to domestic and international copyrighted products, because of its worldwide range and unpredictability. Despite the differences of juridical systems among countries, the presence of an international pattern that would provide guidelines against a common menace is more needed than ever. Thanks to the new possibilities offered by technology, consumers can now interact with digital works in a way that was unbelievable some years ago. Sharing copyrighted files has become a matter of few seconds through peer-to-peer (P2P) systems and the Web 2.0, while transformative acts on copyrighted materials are easier than at any other time. The line that separates piracy from legal acts has become thinner, due to the wide range of possibilities offered by technology. The urgency of protecting one’s own work may interfere with the right of end-users to operate in the field of copyright exceptions, such as criticism, research, teaching, news reporting, parody, and so on. The so- called Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems adopted by rightholders may in some cases overtake their primary functions and force consumers to commit illegal acts even in undertaking lawful uses. In this context, is the application of law still a necessary and sufficient instrument to guarantee at the same time the protection and the divulgation of intellectual works? In chapter I, I analyze the birth of copyright protection theories, considering the different rationales underlying Civil law systems and Common law ones. I consider then the recent evolutions that, from the Berne