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Argentina: Bill To Expand Copyright On Photographs To

Life-Plus-70 Years Introduced In Argentine Congress
Posted By Intellectual Property Watch On 13/10/2015 @ 9:07 pm | No Comments

By Maximiliano Marzetti

[1]

Bill No. 2517-D-2015, presented by Liliana Mazure, Gloria Bidegain, Susana Canela, Gastn
Harispe, Hctor Recalde and Eduardo Seminara, was introduced to the Argentine Congress to
reform the Argentine Copyright Act (Law No. 11.723) in order to extend copyright over
photographic works to life plus 70 years post mortem auctoris. The current period of protection
for photographs in Argentina is 20 years since publication (article 34). In case the bill is passed it
will have retroactive effect, i.e. photographs that today are in the public domain will revert to
private property.
Enrique Chaparro, President of Vialibre, an NGO that represents an eclectic group of institutions
that support the public domain, has expressed the sectors concern in a letter addressed to the
legislators.[1]

[2]

If the bill becomes law thousands of photographic works would have to be

removed from the National Library, the National Archive, Trapalanda (a recently created publiclyfunded digital library and archive),[2]

[3]

Wikipedia Argentina, Wikimedia Commons, and similar

sites.
[updated] The bill that extends copyright of photographic works to life plus 70 years p.ma

[4].

refers to WIPOs Copyright Treaty (WCT), that Argentina ratified by Law No. 25140. But the bill
goes beyond, as the treaty only obliges member countries to grant copyright for photographic
works for a minimum period of 50 years p.m.a.
In addition the bill does not make a distinction between photographic works of art (reflecting the
authors personality and receiving full term protection) from mere photographs (the others and
receiving a lower term of protection), like the EU Directive 93/98/EEC of 29 October 1993 does
(harmonizing the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights). [end update]
The legislators that introduced the bill seem oblivious to the effect of such a reform on the
functioning of key public institutions, namely national libraries and archives. According to a study
commissioned by WIPO, out of 186 countries in the world Argentina is one of only 33 [corrected]

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that have no exceptions and limitations whatsoever for national

libraries and archives to fulfil their roles.[3]

[6]

The bill includes

no safeguard in this regard.

Moreover, as this author has already expressed in the past, the
Argentine Copyright Law is one of the most restrictive of the
world, without a fair use doctrine and with very limited and
narrow exceptions and limitations.[4]

[7]

This bill can be seen as one more of in a trend by the ruling

partys legislative block to extend economic rights further: Bill
1640-D-2006 (dismissed) pretended to extend copyright to life
plus 80 years p.m.a.; whereas Law No. 26.570 effectively
[5]

extended the term of protection of neighboring rights (from 50

President Juan Domingo and

to 70 years).

Evita Pern, from the national

archives

Photographers may not necessarily be the beneficiaries of the

bill; cultural industries and collective agencies certainly are.
Losers are all the rest of Argentine citizens. Any similarity with

an episode of rent seeking and regulatory capture may not be pure coincidence.

[1]

[8]

Full text of the letter (in Spanish): http://www.vialibre.org.ar/wp-content/uploads

/2015/09/carta_diputados_fotos.pdf
[2]

[9]

[3]

[10]

http://trapalanda.bn.gov.ar/jspui/handle/123456789/102
Full text of the study: http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/copyright/en/sccr_29

/sccr_29_3.pdf.
[4]

[11]

See my free book:

http://www.clacso.org.ar/libreria-latinoamericana/buscar_libro_detalle.php?campo=autor&
texto=Marzetti&id_libro=826.
[12]Maximiliano

Marzetti is a qualified lawyer, intellectual

property consultant and scholar. He obtained his law degree

from the Pontificia Universidad Catlica Argentina where he also
taught commercial law. He earned two master of law degrees,
one from the Universit degli Studi di Torino in intellectual
property and another from the Universitt Hamburg in law and
economics. He was awarded an Erasmus Mundus grant by the

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European Commission, a semi-senior research grant by the Latin

American Council of Social Science (CLACSO), served three
times as foreign scholar (Stipendiat) at the Max Planck Institut
fr Geistiges Eigentum, Wettbewerbs- und Steuerrecht in Munich, Germany, and also provided
legal counsel to the XX Winter Olympic Games Organizing Committee in Turin, Italy. He is
currently a lecturer of Intellectual Property Law and Economics at the Latin American School of
Social Science (FLACSO) and Universidad Torquato Di Tella, Argentina, and visiting lecturer in
various Latin American universities.

Related Articles:
Controversial US Bill Targeting Rogue Websites Introduced In US Congress

[13]

Two Key Laws For The Public Domain Fare Differently In Argentine Congress

[14]

South Africa Draft Copyright Amendment Bill Published For Public Comment

[15]

Article printed from Intellectual Property Watch: http://www.ip-watch.org

Published in: Access to Knowledge, Copyright Policy, Enforcement, English, Features, Information
and Communications Technology/ Broadcasting, Inside Views, IP Policies, Language, Latin
America/Caribbean, Regional Policy, Themes, Venues
URL to article: http://www.ip-watch.org/2015/10/13/argentina-bill-to-expandcopyright-on-photographs-to-life-plus-70-years-introduced-in-argentine-congress/
URLs in this post:
[1] Maximiliano Marzetti: #bio
[2] [1]: #_ftn1
[3] [2]: #_ftn2
[4] p.ma: http://p.ma
[5] Image: http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/PeronArgentina.jpg
[6] [3]: #_ftn3
[7] [4]: #_ftn4
[8] [1]: #_ftnref1
[9] [2]: #_ftnref2
[10] [3]: #_ftnref3
[11] [4]: #_ftnref4
[12] Image: http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2015/10
/Max-Marzetti.jpg
[13] Controversial US Bill Targeting Rogue Websites Introduced In US Congress :
http://www.ip-watch.org/2011/10/27/controversial-us-bill-targeting-roguewebsites-introduced-on-house-side/
[14] Two Key Laws For The Public Domain Fare Differently In Argentine Congress :
http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/09/20/two-key-laws-for-the-public-domain-

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fare-differently-in-argentine-congress/
[15] South Africa Draft Copyright Amendment Bill Published For Public Comment :
http://www.ip-watch.org/2015/07/28/42534/

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