Copyright Law, Quotation and News-Reproduction Free Uses

Article 98 of Law No. 8 of 25 January 1991 lists 'free uses' of a previously disseminated work, including at (c) analysis and brief quotation of other works, justified by the critical, polemic, pedagogic, scientific or informative character of the work in which they are included.

Article 100 separately permits the reproduction of news and information generally, provided it is in conformity with the codes of conduct for journalists and that the source is quoted, without a stated headline-length or short-extract cap. Article 101 limits both: it prohibits the reproduction or slavish imitation of a work's configuration where this could cause confusion as to the work or its author, separately prohibits reproducing the regular columns of a periodical publication where doing so is so systematic as to identify the periodical's usual and typical content, and bars reproducing the title of a newspaper, magazine or other periodical in another work of the same kind within three years of the title's prior use.

No reported San Marino decision applies articles 98 or 100 to a systematic news aggregator as opposed to an individual quoting or reporting on a published work.

The law's own text (Chapter VI, art. 121) states that it enters into force on the fifth day following its legal publication; the law's own printed header states its promulgation date and that it was published on 4 February 1991, but the text does not itself carry the resulting commencement day as a stated calendar date, so no effective date is recorded.