Copyright Committee
LEGAL AND JURISPRUDENTIAL STUDY IN ELEVEN COUNTRIES IN LATIN AMERICA ON THE RETRANSMISSION OF FRAGMENTS – OR COMPLETE CONTENT – OF SPORTS EVENTS
The ASIPI Copyright Committee presents a study on the legislation and jurisprudence applicable to the retransmission of fragments or full content of sporting events in eleven Latin American countries, namely: Uruguay, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico , Cuba, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Paraguay.
In this document the reader will find the response of representatives of each of these countries to questions such as the following:
- Are there any legal provisions or jurisprudential pronouncements that establish a copyright or related right on broadcasts of sporting events?
- If there is protection via copyright or related rights in your jurisdiction on the subject, are there any legal provisions or jurisprudential pronouncements that establish any exception or limitation to copyright or related rights that allows a third party to retransmit fragments of said content without the authorization of the rights holder?
- Are there codes of good practice in the audiovisual sector or other form of private union regulation that refers to broadcasting of sporting events?
After analyzing the responses, the Committee drew up a series of conclusions, among which we can highlight the following: no specific regulation was found in any of the countries studied that establishes a copyright or related right on the emission of sporting events or a regulation of the so-called right of arena or protection of a sporting event. On the other hand, the retransmission of the signal from broadcasting organizations in general is legally recognized as a related right in countries such as Mexico, Uruguay, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Colombia, while in Argentina it has been dealt with jurisprudentially.
Another conclusion of the work is that the different countries establish certain exceptions or limitations to copyright or related rights in order to allow a third party to retransmit fragments of the protected content. Perhaps the most applied exception in most cases is that of “news purposes”, within which current soccer matches can be found.
Some casuistic peculiarities are presented, such as the case of Paraguay, where there is an agreement by which the company holding the related rights of Paraguayan soccer broadcasts, allows the retransmission of the most important plays of each match, as long as they do not exceed 20 seconds, thus establishing a contractual solution beyond that established by the legislation of the countries regarding news purposes or an exception known in Anglo-Saxon countries as “News Access”.
In any case, this work is an indispensable tool for all of us who move in the world of intellectual property since there are very few comparative law studies in this regard.
We invite all members to consult it as it meets all ASIPI expectations regarding the relevance of the topic and current events. We thank the Committee for helping us fulfill one of the main functions of the Association which is to keep all its members updated.
