We have discussed in detail here the Unauthorized Biography bill which aims to avoid the prohibition of release of works based on unauthorized biographies of public persons such as books or movies.
The news is that the bill was approved by the House of Representatives last April 02, 2013 and will now go to the Senate for approval. Continue reading
Filed under Brazilian cultural policy
Adriano Vizoni/Folhapress
The president Dilma Rousseff announced this Tuesday that Ana de Hollanda no longer is the Minister of Culture in Brazil. The hard task of dealing who such affairs – including the reform of the Copyright Act – now pertains to Marta Suplicy, which is a former mayor of São Paulo.
The Brazilian music public performance collection society – ECAD – is under heavy fire. In June, 2011 a Congressional Investigation at the Brazilian Senate was triggered to investigate several alleged frauds by ECAD. The investigation started after several complaints regarding ECAD’s lack of transparency, excessive collection and lack of criteria to determine and distribute the collected amounts. One of the complaints, for example, said that an employee of one of the associations that form ECAD (there are 9 in total) used the name of a bus driver to receive more than US$ 75,000.00 due to songwriters and performers.
As a result of the 10-month investigation, with several hearings and the collection of a vast amount of documents, a 350-page report, with more than 3 thousand exhibits was produced. It is a lot to read and to digest. By the end of the day, though, the document requests the indictment of 15 people who are – or were – part of ECAD and of the associations that form ECAD for a number of different crimes, such as misappropriation of funds, auditing fraud, formation of cartel and unjust enrichment. Continue reading
In an update to our post here, we inform our readers that Congressman Walter Feldman has requested the withdrawal of the so-called Brazilian SOPA bill, which will no longer be voted, at least not for the time being. Continue reading
If you read this blog, you know I follow closely the development of the pre-bill of Copyright Act which is currently being analyzed by the Civil House of the President of the Republic for possible remittance to Congress.
However, apparently, Congressman Nazareno Fonteles from the Labor Party of the state of Piauí (Northeastern region of Brazil) got tired of waiting and decided to present his own bill to change the Copyright Act (Bill no. 31331/12). In principle, this is a smart move because shorter bills have better chances of going faster before Congress. However, his bill is basically a “copy and paste” of everything that is wrong with the pre-bill of Copyright Act proposed by the Ministry of Culture. Worse yet, it is a “copy and paste” of prior versions of the pre-bill which were clearly designed to make copyright flexible to the users, yielding less protection to the content creators and owners. Continue reading
On December 21, 2011, Ancine has started the public consultation proceeding related to the draft of the Normative Instruction that will set forth rules for the presentation and analysis of accountability of public resources invested in projects of its jurisdiction.
The proposal consolidates preexistent rules pertaining to other Normative Instructions and modifies several other provisions of Ancine’s internal regulations. The Normative Instruction aims at improving communication between ANCINE and the regulated agents by simplifying procedures and unifying the rules for accountability. The normative instruction also brings innovations that will confer more agility and effectiveness to the processes. Continue reading
The President of the Republic issued, on December 21st, 2011, Decree no. 7,647, which determines the number of days that should be reserved in movie exhibition complexes for Brazilian films. The decree also determines the number of different titles that must be screened during the year. The chart is just after the jump but, in order to understand it properly, please note that the second column – “quota per complex” – should be divided by the number of screens per complex in the first column. Continue reading
Filed under Audiovisual, Brazilian cultural policy
The Brazilian Civil Code of 2002 (which substituted the prior Civil Code of 1916 and came into effect as of January 10, 2003), for the first time, brought legislative regulation of the personality rights. Before that, only the Federal Constitution of 1988 dealt with this matter in Section 5, related to the Fundamental Rights and Guarantees.
In trying to regulate the personality rights in 11 sections (11 to 21 to be more exact), Congress created what many perceive as an overprotection of such rights: section 20 of the Civil Code. This section reads as follows:
Section 20. Unless authorized or if necessary for the enforcement of Justice or the maintenance of the public order, the publication of written texts, the transmission of words, or the publication, exposition or utilization of the likeness of a person may be forbidden, upon the person’s requirement and without prejudice to the indemnification that may be applicable, if such use affects the person’s honor, reputation or respectability, or if such use is for commercial purposes.
Sole Paragraph. In case of deceased or absentee, his/her spouse, ascendants or descendants will have legitimacy to request such protection. Continue reading
Filed under Brazilian cultural policy
Last week, the House of Representatives approved the proposal to amend the Federal Constitution and grant tax exemption to CDs and DVDs containing music from Brazilian authors or music interpreted by Brazilian musicians in general.
If further approved by the Senate and sanctioned by the President, the above proposal will cause a considerable reduction on the sales prices of CDs and DVDs. The intention is basically to ensure access to more consumers and, as a result, curb piracy. Continue reading
Although the Ministry of Culture is still silent regarding the status of the bill of Copyright Law, we were provided with a copy of the new text of the bill that was allegedly sent to the Civil House. Though this may not be official, here goes a summary of the changes: Continue reading
