On the National Day Against Piracy, Brazil’s National Agency of Cinema (ANCINE) submitted to public consultation a draft Normative Ruling to regulate the reception of notifications about copyright violations of audiovisual works on the internet and to create measures to hinder such practices. In the draft, ANCINE adopts a repressive strategy and proposes imposing penal sanctions to internet sites as the adequate device to protect copyrights online. This device to receive and process information about copyright violation would give the agency wide-ranging powers and put at risk legitimate uses of copyrighted works, of the public domain and of fundamental rights.

In April 2021, InternetLab responded to the public consultation with its own contribution, in order to emphasize the importance of debating copyright protection on the internet and to point out the inadequacies of the proposed Normative Ruling. Other civil society organizations also sent their contributions, highlighting the dangers this proposal represents to the legitimate use of works, and the ineffectiveness of employing repressive strategies to protect copyrights.

As a research institution, InternetLab understands that there is a gap in Brazilian legislation about copyrighted works on the internet, a theme which is extensively debated in Brazil and abroad. The complexity of this debate derives from the fact that the protection’s extension and the instruments adopted to protect authors and copyright holders bring consequences both to the setting of a culturally rich environment that would allow broad access to contents, and to other rights, as rights to privacy, to access education and leisure, and to freedom of speech. The definition of measures to guarantee copyrights should take into account not only the copyright holders’ interests, but also the limitations and exceptions to copyrights and other fundamental rights.

In its contribution, InternetLab seeks to address 5 questionable aspects of the Normative Ruling:

(i) issues related to ANCINE’s field of practice and competences regarding copyright regulations and the potential ineffectiveness of using repressive strategies as a way of fighting piracy;

(ii) the consideration of the different interests involved in the issue;

(iii) points that could impair the proposal’s implementation;

(iv) issues related to the involvement of the Federal Attorney and

(v) the indetermination about the intent of some of the proposed measures.

Read the contribution sent to ANCINE here.