Copyright had not been reviewed since 1993; therefore, the legislature saw the pressing need to update the matter and, after extensive debates, enacted Law 1915 of July 12, 2018, which amends Law 23 of 1982 and establishes other provisions on copyright and related rights, thus updating the entire legal framework on copyright and related rights.
This new law is structured around the following thematic axes: (i) updating the general provisions on copyright and related rights; (ii) regulating the regime for technological protection measures for works and performances protected by copyright and related rights; (iii) the regime of exceptions and limitations to copyright; (iv) the regulatory regime for orphan works; (vi) provisions on the enforcement of copyright and related rights.
In the criminal aspect, the new law establishes two new punishable conducts with four to eight years of imprisonment and a fine of up to 1,000 minimum wages: (i) Anyone who manufactures, imports, distributes, offers to the public, supplies, or otherwise commercializes counterfeit labels affixed to a phonogram, a copy of a computer program, the documentation or packaging of a computer program, or a copy of a film or other audiovisual work. And (ii) Anyone who manufactures, imports, distributes, offers to the public, supplies, or otherwise commercializes counterfeit documents or packaging for a computer program.
Additionally, the new law manages to regulate the issue of legal deposit (the obligation to deposit a copy of the unpublished work produced in the country through the National Library), even granting powers to the Ministry of Culture to sanction non-compliance with legal deposit with one current daily legal minimum wage for each day of delay, without exceeding 10 wages for each copy that fails to comply with the deposit.
On the other hand, Law 1915 of July 12, 2018 stipulates that the National Copyright Directorate shall convene a public hearing every three years to conduct a periodic review of the limitations and exceptions to copyright, to determine the need and advisability of submitting to Congress a bill to reform such matters.
This new law creates more limitations and exceptions that, added to those already enshrined in Law 23 of 1982, especially benefit libraries, educational institutions, museums, archives, organizations for the preservation of cinematographic and sound heritage, public broadcasting organizations, journalists, cartoonists, and researchers. And in general, all civil society that uses these contents protected by copyright and performances protected by related rights.