No copyright pending, due to illegal production of the image by original (unknown) author/s.

This is really an unusual case: the picture was taken by some terrorist during the kidnapping, as a psychological pressure to force Italian government to give in to blackmail.

According to Italian law, no civil rights can be generated while committing a crime (except for the victims) and the action of taking this picture was completely and solely instrumental for the perpetration of the crime.

Just to look at it from another point of view, should the still unknown author ever claim rights on it (and it never happened yet, even if this picture is very often reproduced on many media :), Italian legal system would absolutely refuse to grant any protection to his/her requests, because this would eventually lead to the paradox that the state - I summarise - could be considering protected on one side what it is forbidden on another side.

Therefore, this picture actually has absolutely no rights' pending upon because illegally produced. It is then in the public domain because no-one is allowed to claim for eventually related rights. --g 17:48, 21 February 2006 (UTC)