Category Archives: Intellectual Property

April 20, 2012 · 10:29 pm

Tax news is always bad news – CIDE apparently is applicable to copyrights

Drowning, waving for help - photo by can akat @ iStockphotoI believe it is a universal truth that taxes are never reduced or eliminated. In the year 2000, Brazil instituted a new tax called CIDE (acronym for “Contribution of Intervention in the Economic Domain”) which would be levied upon payments originated from contracts that foresee the remittance of royalties, of any nature, to beneficiaries outside Brazil. The purpose of the tax is to foment the technological development of the country. Basically 10% of everything that is remitted abroad under the denomination “royalties” would have to be collected.

But why am I addressing a 12-year old tax now? Continue reading →

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Filed under Copyright in Brazil, Copyright Law, Entertainment Law Brazil, Intellectual Property

April 3, 2012 · 7:00 am

Special Congressional Commission created to discuss the Brazilian Internet Bill

Homem Invisível 2Last March 28, the House of Representatives of the Brazilian Congress created a Special Commission to discuss the Internet Bill. I have already made my brief comments about the bill here when I reported it had been sent to Congress so that I will not go into details right now.
Suffice it to say that there is a lot of room for improvement.

In any event, it seems that Congress is at least worried about the implications of such bill and the creation of the Special Commission is indicative of that. The President of the Comission is Congressman João Arruda, from the PMDB party from the state of Paraná (South of Brazil). In declarations to one of the largest Brazilian newspapers, O Estado de São Paulo, Mr. Arruda said that “The discussion touches upon censorship. It is related to privately owned companies. And it also relates to the responsible for the investigation of crimes. It is necessary to find balance.” Continue reading →

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Filed under Intellectual Property, Internet in Brazil, Privacy and Publicity Rights, Sem categoria

March 16, 2012 · 7:00 am

No soup for you! Content creators and owners left starving for concrete measures to protect rights on the internet

Empty Bowl - by PashaIgnatov @ iStockphotoIn 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 →

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Filed under Brazilian Copyright Act, Brazilian Copyright Law, Brazilian cultural policy, Copyright in Brazil, Copyright Law, Intellectual Property

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March 15, 2012 · 10:15 am

What’s in a name? State Court of Rio de Janeiro clarified the protection afforded to titles of works of authorship

lettering applied to image by Pieter Beens from Stock.xchngIn comparison with more mundane matters such as consumer complaints against vendors, landlord and tenants disputes or business related matters, copyright cases are still relatively rare for local judges.
Even within the realm of copyright cases, the vast majority is related to allegations of blatant piracy or some form of plagiarism.

However, this week, I learned of a recent decision involving a specific topic within the copyright law. The case revolved around the legal protection afforded to titles of works of authorship and this blogger was positively impressed by the decision which can help clarify the boundaries of protection of titles.

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Filed under Brazilian Copyright Law, Copyright in Brazil, Copyright Law, Intellectual Property

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March 13, 2012 · 6:40 pm

YouTube, blogs, ECAD, streaming and public performance in Brazil. What a mess!

illustration by Jimmy McManisLast week, a debate has grown after blog Caligraffiti complained about invoices for public performance fees for embedding Youtube videos sent by ECAD, the Central Office for Collection and Distribution of Public Performance Rights in Brazil.

The debate has motivated a dedicated post at Forbes online where the charges were considered a scandal. The column, written by Forbes’ contributor Ricardo Geromel, considered that “astonishingly, according to absurd copyright laws in Brazil, the Central Bureau of Collection and Distribution is surprisingly correct in doing so”.

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Filed under Copyright in Brazil, Entertainment Business, Entertainment Law Brazil, Intellectual Property, Internet in Brazil, Privacy and Publicity Rights

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February 28, 2012 · 3:30 pm

State Court of São Paulo has ordered GOOGLE to remove links to sites which offer unauthorized real time programs from TV GLOBO

According to news reports, the largest Brazilian television broadcaster – TV GLOBO –  has obtained an injunction before the State Court of São Paulo against Google  based on copyright violation.  The injunction requires the search engine to remove from the search results links to sites which offer access to real time programs from TV Globo without authorization.

TV GLOBO claims to have first sent  warning letters to Google demanding the removal of the links and that the court action was only filed as a last resource  in view of the lack of compliance with the requests. Continue reading →

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Filed under Audiovisual, Brazilian Copyright Law, Copyright in Brazil, Copyright Law, Entertainment Business, Entertainment Law Brazil, Intellectual Property, Internet in Brazil

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February 8, 2012 · 11:45 am

My Completely Unsolicited Comments on The SOPA and PIPA Issue

Pied Piper of Hamelin. Illustrations by Kate Greenaway (1846-1901)Now that the “internet outrage” over SOPA and PIPA has apparently subsided at least a little, I would like to make a couple of comments about it, looking from a Brazilian perspective.

However, I will start quoting the title of the article Duff McKagan, bassist of the original Guns N’ Roses band, wrote at the Seattle Weekly. He brilliantly summarized the whole situation and I happen to agree with him wholeheartedly: “Quit whining about SOPA and PIPA. Where’s the public outrage over internet piracy?” Continue reading →

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Filed under Entertainment Law Brazil, Intellectual Property, Piracy, Privacy and Publicity Rights

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August 26, 2011 · 5:53 pm

The Ministry of Justice finally sent the Internet Bill to Congress: is this good or bad?

According to the Ministry of Justice’s website, the so called Civil Regulatory Mark for the Internet in Brazil was sent to Congress yesterday. The Internet Bill received number 2,126/11 and it is currently following the procedures of the House of Representatives and, then, it will be remitted to the Senate. It is unclear how long the process may take but now is the moment for content creators and owners to pay close attention as the Congress may amend the current text of the bill before sending it to the presidential sanction.
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Filed under Brazilian Copyright Act, Copyright in Brazil, Intellectual Property, Internet in Brazil

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March 25, 2011 · 9:24 pm

Interesting news on tax aspects of the download of audiovisual works in Brazil

Last year, the  the 8th Fiscal Region Office of the Federal Revenue Service of São Paulo was inquired about the nature of the taxes – if any – that would be levied upon the download of movies. The entity which made the consultation has not been disclosed by the Federal Revenue Service but it seems fairly clear it must have been a big name on the download/streaming of movies via the internet or someone connected to this big name. Continue reading →

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Filed under Entertainment Law Brazil, Intellectual Property, Movie Production

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January 31, 2011 · 9:24 pm

According to IFPI’s new report, Brazil ranks second place in digital piracy

 

IPFI has just released IFPI DIGITAL MUSIC REPORT 2011 and Brazil ranks second place in number of active internet users visiting unlicensed services with 44%, just behind Spain with 45%.

Unfortunately this is a podium where Brazil should be ashamed to step. Continue reading →

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