Copyright policy
The main goal of the measure – Law nº 12853 of 14 August 2013, alongside Decree 8469/2015 as well as the ordinances and normative instructions that regulate it – was to alter the Copyright Act (Law nº 9610/1998) concerning the inclusion of collective management of those rights. With the new legal instruments, the associations of copyright charges contracted the obligation of meeting universal charging parameters and of guaranteeing more transparency to the rightholders regarding registry and distribution of collected amounts.
In the scope of the promotion of cultural diversity, the new instruments have created the legal conditions for independent artists who work at the fringes of the cultural industry, to have greater control of the amounts collected in their name, being able to monitor and report on any irregularities in the charging and distribution of the amounts pertaining to their works. At the same time, from the regulation of the Act, the Direction of Intellectual Rights of the Ministry of Culture also gained greater monitoring power, with a more concrete role on the mediation and arbitration of litigations.
One of the challenges regarding copyright in Brazil concerns the need to make alterations upon the reigning legislation, especially the items pertaining to limitations. Those alterations would fulfill the goal of promoting access to protected works from Brazil and elsewhere, especially those with strategic value for the preservation of memory and the appreciation of the cultural wealth of Brazil and the world. This measure implicates the definition and establishment of regulatory and arbitration mechanisms that allow, for instance, for the liberation of access to fundamental works for the national and universal culture and memory that are out of circulation, even for commercialization, due to legal deadlocks with producers, editors and authors.
Another challenge is the search for balance between the promotion of diversity of access to the works and the fair remuneration of the artists and authors, considering the technological changes that have been modifying the mechanisms of sale and distribution of music, film and books. Presently, the most notorious case is that of the streaming services. That is because, considering the fast pace with which technologies change, one must considered the demand for the creation of instruments to guarantee that balance must be dynamic and based upon regulation as well as compatible mediation and arbitration rules. In that sense, it is necessary to establish rules and regulation mechanisms for the digital environment.
A first step stemming from this issue was the elaboration of a normative instruction that is under public consultation for the definition of rules for charging copyright in the digital environment. At the same time, the Directorship of Intellectual Rights of the Ministry of Culture has been actively participating on meeting and has set up a work group integrated by representatives of stakeholders with the aim of discussing, elaborating mechanisms that guarantee that the content offered in digital environments does not favor only what is interesting for the industry.
Budgeted resources are allocated.