With the aim of creating at international level a more balanced system regarding the scope of copyright protection, an academic initiative coordinated by the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition developed the “International Instrument on Permitted Uses in Copyright Law”. This project, brings together a group of 20 internationally renowned copyright specialists from different countries. The Instrument includes concrete provisions to form an international treaty establishing a core of minimum permitted uses of Works. With this “minimum permitted uses approach” the Instrument aims at counterbalancing the traditional “minimum protection approach” of international copyright legislation[1]

With the instrument in mind and, as a preliminary step and input for the project, a workshop with experts from the region was held on "Ways for an Appropriate Copyright Regulation in Latin America" focused on analysing several axes related to fundamental rights and interest involved, the dysfunctional potential of copyright law and remedies, the interests of original and derivative right holders and, actors and market power in digital business models.

In this project, we focus on copyright law and essentially ask how it needs to be designed in order to have the most positive effects in Latin America. In essence, this concerns two major aspects. First, it is about optimizing the framework conditions for creative work in Latin America – in all sectors covered by copyright, primarily cultural creativity, but also including regional scientific activities. Second, it is about designing copyright in such a way that users in Latin America can derive the widest possible benefit from protected works – especially in light of the challenges posed by the digital economy. 

[1] www.ip.mpg.de/en/research/research-news/permitted-uses-in-copyright-law-research-team-develops-international-instrument.html