Global Artists' Issues: focus on Latin America
in cra-briefings37 · June 15, 2006
Latin America is a microcosm that allows an examination of the problems that are facing content developers on the global stage. This was highlighted recently at the International Publishers’ Association Symposium on Copyright held in Montreal in May. The speakers included Chilean author Luis Sepulveda and Mexican Hugo Setzer. Credit must be given to them for the inspiration to focus on Latin America in this briefing and for bringing many of the issues on which this piece is based to the attention of the Canadian content production community.
Latin American countries are experiencing huge problems with piracy; this is evidenced by the appearance of Argentina, Belize, Brazil and Venezuela on the Priority Watch List of the Special 301 report. However, some plead for understanding that this kind of piracy is due to the fact that people in these countries cannot afford to purchase non-pirated goods. They are looking to their governments to find a solution, in particular to make content more accessible for educational purposes.
Some have argued that the position of creators is also impacted by their financial position. Publishing contracts are generally an all-or-nothing proposition. The creator is required to sign a contract under which all, or virtually all, of their copyrights are surrendered, or not get published. This kind of approach is beginning to emerge in developed countries such as Canada, but does not appear to be as widespread or affect artists who are well established.
Creators are lobbying in Latin America to protect their rights. Recently representatives of seven Latin American countries met in Brazil to discuss the establishment of collective societies that would be under the control of the creative community. To date only Mexico has a collective society that is controlled by rights holders, with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay working toward the development of the Mexican model. The development of effective creator controlled collectives in Latin America would be an important step toward the protection of creators rights and give creators a cohesive voice for lobbying government. For more information on these initiatives see www.union-network.org.
The legislative situation in Latin America has been described as “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” by Hugo Stezer the chair of CeMPro, the Mexican reprographic rights organization.
Mexico represents the most promising legislative environment where three new bills implicating copyright have been tabled. The first is an anti-piracy bill which is being debated in the senate under which the police would be able to act against an offender without a claim from the party whose rights are being infringed. The current law in Mexico requires such a complaint. However, any charge for the purchase of pirated goods will still be hard to prove as here must be evidence that the purchaser knew the goods purchased were illegal copies. Finally in an effort to curb mass market piracy, this bill also introduces harsher sanctions for established pirates.
In December 2005, the house debated a bill on private copying which attempted to make a distinction between private use and uses that should be subject to licensing. The final bill contemplates a levy on photocopying machines and other machines used to make copies. This levy is being heavily contested by the manufacturing industry. Brazil is also actively involved in amending its legislation. There is a bill currently being considered in Brazil which would allow students enrolled in university to make entire copies of textbooks for non-commercial purposes. While passage of this bill could substantially affect publishers and rights holders in Brazil, rights holder groups have not been greatly concerned as there is a general belief that the bill will not pass.
Mr. Setzer indicated that the worst situation in Latin America is in Venezuela. The Venezuelan government has proposed a copyright bill that violates many provisions of the Berne Convention and TRIPS Agreement. The bill would make it mandatory to register copyrighted works, would establish a mandatory maximum royalty and would permit the government to “seize works for reasons of collective benefit”. In the event of such seizure any rights that a creator might have in the work would be surrendered to the state. This provision would apply whether or not the work was by an indigenous creator or publisher. The greatest concern for the industries is that this bill is likely to pass and other countries such as Peru and Bolivia would likely follow suit.