The Bertolino-Sidam Court Sentence
Fratelli (bros.) Bertolino was the distributor for Italy of the coin
of the Atari video games.In 1982 Bertolino bringing an action against Sidam, since this company had sold some versions of Atari games, modified in some places and not authorized.
Sidam defended himself in court, arguing that, under Italian law, video games were not considered intellectual property.
The judges gave reason to Bertolino and condemned Sidam, which in the meantime had started building games on a regular license.
This ruling also involved other companies.
From that moment the "pirate-builders" in Italy were less and less.
As reported in "Atari Inc. & Bertolino v. Sidam Srl: First Italian Decision on Video Games", on publication European Intellectual Property Review , V, 12 (december 1983), pp.347-349.
The sentence was confirmed several times until the year 1989.