Digital exploitation of musical works: Lucio Battisti's heirs win before the Italian Supreme Court

With order no. 12956 of 14 May 2025, the Italian Supreme Court ruled in a complex case concerning copyright and the digital exploitation of musical works, rejecting the appeal filed by Sony Music Entertainment Italy S.r.l. (Sony Music) against Lucio Battisti's heirs and their companies Edizioni Musicali Acqua Azzurra S.r.l. (Acqua Azzurra) and Aquilone S.r.l. (Aquilone).

The well-known major, as phonographic producer and owner of the original recordings of Battisti's works, disputed the legitimacy of the revocation by the artist's heirs of the mandate granted to the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE), concerning the management of the reproduction rights and communication to the public of his works. According to Sony Music, this revocation, which took place without the negotiation of a new agreement, would have prevented the online use of the songs and the synchronisation of the recordings in advertising. As long as the mandate to SIAE was in force, the latter was in fact in charge of managing the copyright on Battisti's works, allowing Sony Music to exploit them digitally and in synchronisation through licences. In the company's view, the heirs, having taken over the author's rights and obligations, should have allowed the continued commercial exploitation of the recordings, in particular for advertising purposes, by negotiating a new agreement for the management of the rights.

On these grounds, Sony Music had brought an action seeking, inter alia, a declaration of liability of the heirs and the companies they administered, and an order to pay damages in the amount of approximately €7 million.

The company's claims had been rejected at first instance and the Court of Appeal of Milan had upheld the decision.

With this order, the Supreme Court, in turn, confirmed the second instance decision in its entirety, declaring unfounded all the objections raised by Sony Music. According to the Supreme Court, in fact, the revocation of the mandate granted to SIAE did not present any profile of illegitimacy, as it was fully within the powers granted to Battisti's heirs and their companies, and Sony Music should therefore have obtained the consent of the artist's heirs, who hold the rights to the economic exploitation of the relevant compositions, in order to be able to legitimately use them. The ownership of the phonogram recordings claimed by the company, the Court observes, is distinct from the rights to the musical works incorporated therein; and the contracts signed by Battisti concerned only the ownership of the original recordings, not providing for any authorisation of the use of the works in the absence of the consent of the holders of the relevant rights.

The Court also rejected Sony Music's allegation that Battisti's heirs and their companies had a liability from so-called “social contact”, i.e. the relationship, without a contractual basis, in which one party relies on the fulfilment of a duty of care borne by the other, such as to generate obligations under article 1173 of the Italian Civil Code. In fact, Sony Music claimed that Battisti's heirs and their companies owed such a duty to the major, according to which they should have continued to allow it to use the works by negotiating a new agreement for the management of rights after the revocation of the mandate to SIAE. In this regard, the Court reiterated that this form of liability does not arise automatically every time a conduct has a detrimental effect on third parties: it arises only in the presence of a breach of a rule of conduct specifically imposed by the law for the protection of third parties potentially exposed to the risk arising from the activity in question. In the present case, on the other hand, the actions of the heirs and the companies were lawful and in compliance with the rules on the management of copyright, since there was no obligation on the latter, and therefore no breach of contract, to negotiate a new agreement, subsequent to the revocation of the mandate to SIAE, so that Sony Music could obtain authorisation to exploit Battisti's works.

The ruling is therefore an important warning for music industry operators: the ownership of the phonographic recording is not in itself sufficient to legitimise the commercial exploitation of the incorporated musical work, the use of which remains subject to the authorisation of the copyright holders of the work.