Brazil: technical protection measures may not restrict copyright exceptions

Two days ago in one of our blog posts the question raised whether or not statutory copyright exceptions could (and should) be limited by contract law. A Brazilian bill to amend copyright law takes a clear statement in the matter.

In the chapter on civil law enforcement, section 107 of the bill provides that a person, who adapts, deletes, modifies or alters technological protection measures, commits a wrongful act and is liable for the damages. So far nothing really special.

Interestingly though, the first paragraph of the same section provides that the same penalty applies, without prejudice to other legal sanctions, for those who:

a) obstruct or impede lawful use of statutory exceptions of that Act (such as private copying, fair use, press exception, educational purposes, citation right, parody), or

b) obstruct or impede the free use of works that have entered into the public domain.

These proposed adjustments would probably not please the Nintendo's (advocates of a broad interpretation of the technological protection measures’ scope of protection) and Disney's (proponents of extending the duration of copyright) of this world.

Whoever wants to give (positive) feedback on the bill (and knows his way with the Portuguese language), can click here to contribute to the consultation. Click here for the English translation (by Google).