. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/ITA/10 
27 May 2008 
 (08-2465) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6. 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   ITALY
 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):         
2. Agency responsible:   Ministry for cultural goods and activities - Roma 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site 
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be  indicated if different from above:    
Ministry for economic development  
Department for Market Regulation – Market Supervision and Techni cal Regulation General 
Directorate   Office VII - Technical standardization – 00187 Rome I – Via Sallustiana, 53   Tel. +39 06 4705 5430 Fax: +39 0 6482 1702  
Email: tbt.Italia@sviluppoeconomico.gov.it
, vincenzo.correggia@sviluppoeconomico.gov.it  
European Commission TBT Enquiry Point  ec-tbt@cec.eu.int  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [  X ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:         
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in  addition, where applicable):   Data carriers containing 
computer or multimedia programs, and data carriers containing sounds, vocals or images 
(CDs). 
5. Title, number of pages and lang uage(s) of the notified document:    
Draft Decree of the Prime Minister laying down a ‘Regulation implementing the provisions 
on the countermark of the Italian Authors' and Publishers' Society (SIAE) referred to in 
Article 181a of Law No 633 of 22 April 1941, as introduced by Article 10 of Law No 248 
of 18 August 2000 laying down “New standards on the protection of copyright”’ (6 pages, 
in Italian).  
6. Description of content:    
The draft Regulation is made up of eight articles, the content of which is briefly described 
below.  - Article 1: indicates the scope of the regulation;  - Article 2: identifies the characteristics and type of the countermark to be placed on CDs;  - Articles 3 and 4: concern the procedures fo r positioning and issuing the countermark;  
- Article 5: specifies the requirements, content and properties necessary for data carriers 
containing computer programs, and the pro cedures for using them. This article also 
identifies a series of data carriers containing operating system computer programs that are exempt from the requirement to provide auth entication or send a substitute statement.  G/TBT/N/ITA/10 
Page 2  
 
  - Article 6: governs the identification statement substituting the countermark;  
- Article 7: relates to specific cases;  - Article 8: repeals Decree of the Prime Minister No 338 of 11 July 2001 and subsequent amendments. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable:   It 
is necessary to adopt the notified measure in or der  to regularise the inclusion of new data 
carriers such as CDs within the framework of  the legal obligation to affix the SIAE 
countermark as laid down in Law No 633 of 22 April 1941. 
8. Relevant documents:   - 
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    July 2008 
- 
10. Final date for comments:   24  July 2008 
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [  X ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:   
Text on line at:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tris/index_it.htm   
Also at: http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2008/tbt/ita/08_1366_00_x.pdf