Meta and SIAE failed to reach an agreement to keep ensuring the free sharing of songs and copyrighted content managed by the Italian Body on social platforms owned by the Menlo Park giant, Instagram and Facebook. The after-effect is the blocking and muting of all content featuring music tracks from SIAE repertoire, although creators will be allowed to replace them with royalty-free material within ‘extra SIAE’ libraries: it is a first-time case throughout Europe.
Before delving into the heart of the matter, it seems appropriate to step back and clarify the position of anyone willing to use third-party music online.
Generally speaking, online use and dissemination of other people’s music without the author’s consent is tantamount to copyright infringement. Furthermore, should anyone be willing to use third party music or the music creation within a social network, the platform operator may require users to provide either the license number or a suitable reference to prove to the right to reproduce that specific content, failing which the video will be taken down or published with no sound at all.
