Digital technologies have succeeded in increasing the capacity of society to improve education, science, and culture for all. However, barriers of a different nature have not ceased to exist; an unbalanced copyright system is one of them. This line seeks to help to consolidate a strong voice in favor of the public interest that counteracts the normative tendencies of maximization both in the international field and in local copyright reforms.
Digital technologies have succeeded in increasing the capacity of society to improve education, science, and culture for all. However, barriers of a different nature have not ceased to exist; an unbalanced copyright system is one of them.
Over the past decades, private interests have driven copyright reforms and have negatively impacted the public interest. An unbalanced system not only prevents users from the ability to exercise their human rights, such as freedom of expression and the right of access to education, culture, and science but also threatens creativity and innovation, which has always been heavily dependent on access and reuse of culture. and knowledge. Copyright flexibilities have proven to be a key value for innovators and, therefore, for developing countries’ digital economies.
Global discussions on copyright reform occur in highly unequal spaces, such as trade negotiations and international forums where civil society and academia find little room to participate. In national public policy debates, the interests of the copyright industry have often overlapped those of users. Over the past decades, they have pushed for international agendas of increasingly higher mandatory protections for authors and rights holders, while flexibilities and public interest guarantees are expressed as non-binding language and left to the will of the public—local legislators.
In such a context, open policies have been shown to offer important solutions for access to knowledge. Although they cannot reach the broad extent of access that copyright flexibilities provide, they should be promoted and highlighted.
In Latin America, state copyright offices generally promote highly protective views of intellectual property, so much so that the public domain or flexibilities are scarce both in local legislation and in reform proposals. Traditionally, an important part of the region’s countries has formed a progressive voice around the balance in copyright in international forums. However, this has not necessarily translated into internal policies. Building a strong voice for the public interest of Latin America is essential to counteract international maximization strategies in local copyright reforms, international organizations, and trade agreements.
Line leader
Carolina Botero
Carolina is the Director of the Karisma Foundation. She is a lawyer, has a master’s degree in international and cooperation law (VUB – Belgium), and a master’s degree in Trade and Contract Law (2006, UAB – Spain). For more than a decade, she has worked to promote and defend human rights on the Internet. She is on the Creative Commons Board of Directors.