

Brazil to penalize anyone who "hinders or impedes" fair use rights - dotcoma
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/07/us-could-learn-from-brazilian-penalty-for-hindering-fair-use.ars

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BoppreH
It's a great step and an excellent example for the rest of the world, but for
us, Brazilians, it will make little to no difference.

Absurds taxes and the cost of a proper lawyer make the legal way so expensive
nobody follows it. You heard a nice song and want to use it on your TV
commercial? Go ahead, nobody's looking.

It's not that we go out killing and stealing, we are just more "community
driven." Lawsuits and other legal actions are so rare that they look an
exclusivity between big businesses themselves, but unethical moves are frowned
upon by _everybody_ , which makes for a parallel law-enforcement.

And this law-enforcement is definitely not concerned about copyrights.

~~~
stcredzero
This sounds like a very healthy legal environment for innovation! Combine this
with a good educational system (in at least one region or city) and a
favorable tax structure, and Brazil will have the makings of an economic
revolution.

~~~
BoppreH
The problem is the tax structure. The amount of taxes you have to pay to just
start your business or, god forbid, _hire_ someone, is just stupid.

And the fact that electronics arrive here with two, three times the actual
price, doesn't help either.

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nixy
One man who has fought long and well for this is the former Brazil Minister of
Culture and Polar Prize winner Gilberto Gil
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilberto_Gil>). I think all western governments
would benefit from having a guy like him. I also recommend anyone who is
interested to listen to his music, there are some gems in his portfolio!

~~~
swah
Minister Rastaman.

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natch
About time somebody recognized that all of us are "rights holders."

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Silhouette
The problem is precisely that in most places, we are _not_ all rights holders
in respect of other people's work, even having paid for it. Contrary to the
title of this discussion, there is no such thing in US law as "fair use
rights", for example: fair use is an "affirmative defence", which legally
speaking is not at all the same thing. And, for all the problems with its
copyright law, the US approach to defining fair use is one of the more
sensible and balanced ones in the western world, with many countries not
nearly so open about what is allowed (hence increasing calls to change the law
to be more realistic in the UK, for example).

So perhaps it would be clearer to say: it's about time someone _made us all
rights holders_ when we've paid good money for access to certain content.

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heresy
The great thing is, Brasil does not exactly have a government that will cave
to US or content company interests on this.

Wish our legislators would look at this as a good example to follow when
revisiting our copyright laws, but not likely, buy them a $500 dinner and get
a draconian bill passed, what a great investment.

~~~
rbanffy
In this specific regard, the future looks bright. If the current party's
candidate wins, we can expect the same US-defying (not always rational) stand.
If the leading opposition candidate wins, he was the health minister who went
against Big Pharma's patents.

Serra's (the opposing candidate) stand on free software bothers me a bit, but
we hope he can be properly educated.

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chacha102
I think that this a big step in the right direction. While I don't agree that
DRM should exist in most cases, making sure that consumers who bypass DRM for
legitimate reasons goes against the general way of thinking that the consumer
is a thief (in a good way).

Plus, if there is a clear punishment for preventing consumers from using works
under the fair use acts, there might be a good reason for companies to think
twice about making their files ultra-super-mega-DRM'd.

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motters
Sounds like an excellent idea. In the UK the open rights group should be
pushing for this sort of legislation, to replace the Digital Economy Act.

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code_duck
I wonder if someday the US will decide to be a leader in human rights and
citizen's rights again?

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code_duck
This place sure has turned into a haven for down-voting jerk-offs. Not like I
care about my stupid points or whatever, but voting down non-inflammatory and
non-useless comments without commenting yourself is poor form. If you want the
comment sections on HN to be totally worthless a la several other sites I can
think of, keep up the good work.

~~~
stcredzero
There do seem to be more of those, but deserving posts usually have these
reversed in a little while. At least, that is my experience. YMMV.

~~~
code_duck
Yeah, they are. They way that happens shows that the core of this community is
head and shoulders above the rest of the internet in maturity. I should stop
complaining, I'm probably just not in a good mood.

