Those stickers on Italian records

[David Ayers]

What do we know about these? For example:

 

SIAE is the Italian Society of Authors and Editors, so that’s clear. This one is intended for sale  (vendita) and rental (noleggio) is forbidden (vietato). Clear enough. There is a serial number at the top and the identifier of the company at the bottom. Clear. Do we know though how these are issued and authenticated? One reason I ask is that these could or can be found on the infamous supposed ‘bootlegs’ of organissimo lore. Anyone know more?

 

[Big Beat Steve]

I understand these are just licensing and tax clearance stickers (hence the distinction between sales and rental?). I have seen them both directly on the CD jewel case and on the shrink wrap (there they are easily discarded) - and on LP covers too. As to what they EXACTLY mean, an Italian forumist would have to comment.  At any rate they do not seem to indicate copyright licensing throughout as they are also present on records featuring music that is in the public domain. IIRC all the CDs I've bought from the Riviera Jazz label (reissues of 30s to the mid-50s recordings, sometimes first-time issues of live recordings) had these stickers on their shrink wrap too.

[David Ayers]

Thanks, Steve. 
 

It’s a long-standing thing for sure. Also inside books, on the verso of last printed page, as below. 

 

 

This one shows author, title, collection, publisher, in that order. 

I’ve always thought it must be quite a hassle to put those in, but anyway...

[David Ayers]

 

OK so I just read through the long Wikipedia article at my link which discusses the (until 2014) monopoly of the SIAE in handling author/creator copyrights. There is a section discussing the bollino which is clear enough as to what objects it should be attached to. There are links to the relevant articles of law which I haven’t got the energy to read. I'm not clear how it is enforced or to what end, nor how things work now that a rival organisation is also in existence (thanks to Michel Barnier and the EU). 

 

In fact I wonder if the stickers are still required. I don’t have many recent Italian books to hand but one from 2018 has no sticker. The CD I showed above is from 2012 so predates the end of the monopoly. The article I linked to doesn’t mention any end of the requirement for a sticker, unless I missed it...

 

...which I did. There’s a section dealing with enforcement (absence of the sticker is not an offence in itself) and the practical problems now that SIAE has a rival (the DPCD). Ok now I know enough...

[JSngry]

Have you tried microwaving them?

[Kevin Bresnahan]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Have you tried microwaving them?

DO NOT MICROWAVE THEM. THEY ARE METAL FOIL. THEY COULD IGNITE.

Just trying to prevent someone from burning down their house...

[JSngry]

killjoy

[sonnymax]

I agree with bresna, do not microwave them. Deep fry is the only way to go. 

[David Ayers]

14 minutes ago, bresna said:

DO NOT MICROWAVE THEM. THEY ARE METAL FOIL. THEY COULD IGNITE.

Just trying to prevent someone from burning down their house...

I know. After the first forty or fifty times I razed a property to the ground by doing that I wised up. 

[Rooster_Ties]

Aren’t there some similar(?) sort of stickers on various Japanese CD’s? — I’m thinking of those little, pale pink and green (iirc) stickers on so many of the DIW discs I have — so those serve some kind of similar function? — or we’re those label-specific?  I could swear I’ve seen them on more than just DIW releases from Japan, and now that I think of it, I’ve also seen them on books from Japan too, I think?

[JSngry]

They're really single-serving microwave popcorns.

[Big Beat Steve]

4 hours ago, David Ayers said:

OK so I just read through the long Wikipedia article at my link which discusses the (until 2014) monopoly of the SIAE in handling author/creator copyrights. ...

In fact I wonder if the stickers are still required. I don’t have many recent Italian books to hand but one from 2018 has no sticker. The CD I showed above is from 2012 so predates the end of the monopoly. The article I linked to doesn’t mention any end of the requirement for a sticker, unless I missed it... which I did. There’s a section dealing with enforcement (absence of the sticker is not an offence in itself) and the practical problems now that SIAE has a rival (the DPCD). Ok now I know enough...

FWIW, a brand-new Italian LP (by a recent band) released in 2016 that I bought in (IIRC) early summer 2017 still has that SIAE sticker on the back of the cover.

As for your remarks about the presence of this sticker in books, I do not own many relatively recent books from Italy, but one huuuge 2-volume music tome printed and published in 2010 (i.e. before the end of the monopoly) does not have that sticker anywhere on or in the books nor on the slipcase.
So from what you say it seems like by now its application or non-application has become a random affair.

Edited January 15, 2021 by Big Beat Steve

[porcy62]

Actually I don’t know about stickers’ policy but I checked in my books and records: all imported records have stickers, on label or cover or shrink wrap,  old domestic LP has SIAE printed on label, like GEMA in german records. Recent books don’t have stickers, old books may have it. Sorry if I wasn’t very helpful.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

1 hour ago, David Ayers said:

I know. After the first forty or fifty times I razed a property to the ground by doing that I wised up. 

I debated posting what I did, but in this day and age, there seem to a lot of people doing crazy things because "I saw it on the internet". For instance, how many more times do I have to see some drunk Buffalo Bills fan belly flop onto a portable table before these fans figure out that it's not a wise thing to do?

[porcy62]

41 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

FWIW, a brand-new Italian LP (by a recent band) released in 2016 that I bought in (IIRC) early summer 2017 still has that SIAE sticker on the back of the cover.

I think it depends on who printed the records: mayors have a direct access to SIAE so they incorporate the mark in labels. Indies have to apply the stickers though I am not sure. There were lots of troubles about copyright fees between artists and SIAE in the past. In general SIAE was convenient for broadcasters because they had general agreements with only one part, less for not so “big” artists.

Now internet changed the playground.

[JSngry]

12 minutes ago, bresna said:

 For instance, how many more times do I have to see some drunk Buffalo Bills fan belly flop onto a portable table before these fans figure out that it's not a wise thing to do?

You know, I don't even bother to look. I know it's there, and am happy to let it be there until it goes away, if it ever does. Their thinned herd is my thinned herd.

OTOH, popcorn rules.

 

 

[HutchFan]

1 hour ago, bresna said:

For instance, how many more times do I have to see some drunk Buffalo Bills fan belly flop onto a portable table before these fans figure out that it's not a wise thing to do?

"Oh jeez.  He's having another heart attaaaack."

 

[Big Beat Steve]

3 hours ago, porcy62 said:

I think it depends on who printed the records: mayors have a direct access to SIAE so they incorporate the mark in labels. Indies have to apply the stickers though I am not sure. There were lots of troubles about copyright fees between artists and SIAE in the past. In general SIAE was convenient for broadcasters because they had general agreements with only one part, less for not so “big” artists.

This would confirm what I have observed. Riviera Jazz of course is a relatively small collectors' label and would therefore qualify as an "indie". And the LP I mentioned was released on the band's own label - i.e.an even smaller label.