The "puzzle" of legal policies for the audiovisual sector in the digital era: from EU standards to regional actions in Apulia and Western Greece

This research will offer an overview of the current legal framework regarding the multi-level governance policies aimed at protecting and promoting audiovisual entrepreneurship in the modern digitally driven world, with a specific focus on the investigation of the (frequently underestimated) role of regions, by using two case studies: Apulia and Western Greece. The analysis will follow a top-down approach. Firstly, it will examine some critical aspects of the EU’s legal strategy to enforce copyright in cyberspace. More specifically, it will consider the evolutive regime of online content-sharing service providers’ liability for users’ illegal uploads, as initially settled by the CJEU and, more recently, as established by Art. 17 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, no. 790/2019. Secondly, it will address the national measures adopted by Italian and Greek institutions, underlining national bodies’ complementarity (such as ANICA, the Italian Film Commissions association, the Hellenic Film Commission, and EKOME) in the common objective of supporting audiovisual industries. Thirdly, it will scrutiny the regional actions taken in Apulia and Western Greece. The comparison of these two case studies will highlight two outcomes: (i) the strategical importance of regional interventions for the enhancement of audiovisual businesses and (ii) the different level of development in this sector across the (almost geographically) “neighboring” regions. In sum, this paper will show the indispensable role of regions to protect and encourage audiovisual entrepreneurship in the digital age, emphasizing at the same time the need for a comprehensive policy strategy that should include a constant dialogue with the different governing bodies involved at the European, national, and regional scale.