Copyright

UNI Copyright Policy

Purpose and scope

Copyright is commonly understood as a set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to reproduce, distribute and adapt the work.

All pre-normative and normative documents issued by UNI, as well as other technical publications in printed and digital format, and the same documents available on the UNI website (“UNI Documents“), are protected and copyrighted in accordance with Law No. 633 of 22 April 1941 and subsequent updates, as well as by all further European Union regulations.

The same requirements and constraints are also applicable to subscriptions for consulting the standards and further contributions that UNI makes available to its customers, through databases or platforms for telematic consultation of the UNI Documents as a whole.

Copyright, as mentioned above, is also fully applicable to the publications of the supranational bodies CEN and ISO, to which UNI refers and which have in turn defined copyright policies and prescriptions to which UNI itself must adhere.

 

Principles of protection, violations and consequences

Unauthorised reproduction, duplication and distribution, even in part, of the UNI Documents on any medium, without prior formal authorisation from UNI, is prohibited.

Failure to respect the copyrights of the UNI Documents, by unlawful copying (even partially), scanning, translating, storing in an information retrieval system or transmitting or distributing in any form or by any means, of UNI Documents, constitutes a violation of the law and may result in legal sanctions.

Attention is also drawn to the fact that illegal practices that do not respect copyright undermine the development of standards, depriving the standardisation bodies (UNI, CEN, ISO and the National Standards Bodies of each State) of the revenues necessary to cover the costs of their voluntary standardisation activities.

 

Protection and conditions of use

In UNI Documents intended for the market, both visible and invisible watermarks are embedded that refer to the user who has legitimately acquired the right to use them.

Users are generally required to comply with the following conditions:

  • the purchase of a licence to use the UNI Document allows the user to install a single electronic copy for use on a single device (computer, tablet, smartphone, etc.);
  • the user who has legitimately acquired a licence to use the UNI Document may print paper copies of the UNI Document for private use and for non-commercial purposes, within the limits indicated in the said licence;
  • the user who has legitimately acquired a licence to use a UNI Document may not use the contents of such UNI Document in combination with an artificial intelligence tool (e.g. for training an algorithm, testing, processing, analysing, generating output and/or developing any form of artificial intelligence tool), except where such artificial intelligence tool is used only locally in a self-hosted environment and does not share the processed data with unauthorised third parties.

Special cases:

  • When a user is required to transmit a copy of a UNI Document for which it has legitimately acquired a licence to use, as part of the documentation to be submitted for participation in a tender or similar use, such user is authorised to reproduce and transmit the UNI Document in the manner required by the tender;
  • if the user, for the exercise of the right of defence, has to transmit a copy of a UNI Document for which he has legitimately acquired a licence to use, in the context of judicial proceedings, that user is allowed to produce the UNI Document to the competent judicial authority in the permitted manner;
  • The user who needs to insert one or more UNI Documents within a corporate Intranet (or other internal network, with or without artificial intelligence systems) must first make a special request to UNI at the references below, giving details of the type of network and intended use.

 

Exceptions

Exceptions are made, according to current legislation, for the summary, quotation or reproduction and communication to the public of extracts from UNI Documents, if they are used for purposes of criticism, discussion, teaching or scientific research and within the limits justified by these purposes and provided that this does not constitute competition for the economic use of the UNI Document. Even in the case of teaching or research purposes, the use must not be for commercial purposes, but only for “illustrative” purposes and with the prior consent of UNI, and quotations must in any case include UNI’s copyright notice.

EU Directive 790/2019 (the so-called ‘Copyright Directive’), transposed in Italy by Legislative Decree 177/2021, amended Law No. 633 of 22 April 1941, allowing research organisations and institutes for the protection of cultural heritage, for purposes of scientific research, reproductions for the purpose of text and data mining from works or other materials available in networks or databases to which they have lawful access, as well as the communication to the public of the results of the research when expressed in new original works.

 

Authorisation procedures

For UNI’s consent to the reproduction of extracts from UNI Documents and for further information on the licensing of UNI Documents, please contact:

UNI – Customers and Members – vendite@uni.com

In general terms, the authorisation to reproduce UNI documents is conditional on the payment of royalties in accordance with the applicable UNI, CEN and ISO regulations.

 

Final note

This document is intended for explanatory purposes only and is not exhaustive, and therefore UNI does not waive any rights and/or actions that may be exercised in accordance with the provisions in force from time to time regarding copyright protection of all UNI Documents.