Legal Niches

Brazil's Fair Approach to Copyright Enforcement

By james_fudge

Brazil seems to have taken a more compassionate and even handed approach to copyright protection, according to the Inquirer. The country has implemented rules that offer protections for both copyright holders and the public. For the public fair use is just as important as copyright infringement and so the rules take that into account. The rules also punish those copyright holders who game the system and bully people using copyrighted material under fair use.

This means that the law can be used on anyone that commits a copyright crime like illegally breaking copyright protection and sharing media, and any firm that uses unfair copyright protection tactics.

Canadian law professor Michael Geist recently talked about Brazil's approach on his blog, saying that it "establishes equivalent penalties for hindering or preventing the users from exercising their fair dealing rights." By his thinking "over-protection" of copyright is just as wrong as protecting it. Read More

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Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on July 14, 2010 (boomark / email).