When visual or musical material protected by copyright is used in advertising, one must seek permission and often pay for it. How, then, can images and names of saints, which might be considered symbols under the copyright of the church, be used by mafiosi? Are they being blasphemous, pirating the saints against the church's will? Or do they enjoy at least a tacit blessing?

QUESTION: Do mafiosi enjoy the church's tacit blessing, or is this appropriation a form of symbolic piracy? XREF: Connects to discussions of cultural appropriation of religious imagery and the blurred line between sacred symbols and copyrighted intellectual property.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 126