IPTango: film

Showing posts with label film. Show all posts

Saturday, 3 March 2018

Enredados is here! a newtwork for all IP and ICH issues

Patricia Covarrubia March 03, 2018 No comments:

Celebrating the formal launch of 'Enredados' I am proud to invite you to an event taken place in London, Wednesday 28 March, 2018 (book here, free of charge). The event has two sessions under the name 'Copyrighting, Tradition and the Flight of the Condor':

1.- A talk by Prof Valdimar Tr. Hafstein from the Department of Folklore, Ethnology, and Museum Studies, University of Iceland. He is the author of a number of articles and books on intangible heritage, cultural property, international heritage politics, folklore, and copyright in traditional knowledge. He is the former president of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF) and former chair of the Icelandic Commission for UNESCO.

2.- A preview of a film lead by Prof Valdimar.

This event will celebrate the formal launch of Enredados, an online network of policymakers, academics and practitioners in the fields of IP and ICH established to encourage debate on the following issues:
•the intersections between IP and ICH-related policy;
•the relationship between IP and ICH safeguarding; and
•how IP protection might be used as a tool for safeguarding ICH

Enredados coordinators and event organisers:
•Charlotte Waelde (Professor of Intellectual Property Law,
Coventry University)
•Harriet Deacon (Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University)
•Patricia Covarrubia (Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Buckingham and IP consultant at Latin America IPR SMEs Helpdesk).

For more info in the network, happy to answer any questions via e-mail.

In Peru the Right of the Authors are enhancing

Patricia Covarrubia October 10, 2016 No comments:

From the Peruvian National Institute for Defence of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) I read 3 different set of news but all relating to the same: the ‘right of authors’.

1.- GUIDANCE: A reminder to all music producers and creators that there is a booklet providing guidance and promoting awareness of the rules and respect for intellectual property: ‘Guia especializada de derecho de autor para musicos’.
The booklet is written in a simple way explaining the ‘rights of authors in their musical works and how they can obtain economic benefit of its creation’. It is accessed here.

2.- NO TO PIRACY: In light of the national film premiere La peor de mis bodas ('The worst of my weddings), INDECOPI ‘urges citizens to support national film production, rejecting any pirated material’. INDECOPI acknowledges the effort made by the Peruvian people in putting the movie together including artist, directors and production team, and thus, invites the public to support the movie and go to the cinema.

3.- COUNTING YOUR PENNIES: INDECOPI installed a web application called 'Sintoniza’ (Tune). It allows property’s owners (such as bars, shopping centres, dance schools, etc.) to see an estimate of the rate it would have to pay for the use of national and international musical repertoire - administered by collecting societies. The application is free of charge and it is said to be an easy and comprehensive tool for the general public. INDECOPI says that through this tool, they encourage ‘the payment of duties that by law, shall receive authors, artists and producers.’

INDECOPI: the watchdog!

Patricia Covarrubia September 08, 2014 No comments:

Once again this year (previously reported here) the Peruvian National Institute for the Defence of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) has reaffirmed that “ illegal reproduction or sale of any domestic or foreign production, could be fined up to 180 tax units (ITU).”

Iglesia Cristiana protagonista de filme “Perro Guardián”

INDECOPI’s statement came after the premiere of a national film called 'Perro Guardián' (Watchdog) which has been selected for the International Film Festival in Montreal 2014. The Peruvian Institution discourages the population to be part of illegal products which demoralizes creators and producers - it also hurts the economy. It asked the population to only “access legal and original products and services, refusing piracy in all its forms”.

Several times INDECOPI, through the Directorate of Copyright (DDA), has coordinated actions and campaigns seeking to combat piracy and so enforcing copyright. INDECOPI is working in this with the Commission to Combat Customs Crimes and Piracy (CLCDAP), the Prosecutor's Office and the National Police of Peru. INDECOPI reports that this type of campaigns does “have good results. For example, the movie ‘Viejos Amigos’, released a few weeks ago, sets record attendance in theatres”.

Peru: beyond the 'naughty step technique' for illegal copying in the film industry

Patricia Covarrubia April 21, 2014 No comments:

The Peruvian IP Institute (INDECOPI) is once again looking after its domestic film industry. Two months ago with the release of the Peruvian movie ‘El vientre’ (the womb) we became aware of extra activities that the Institute, together with other institutions such as the Commission to Combat Customs Crimes and Piracy (CLCDAP), the Attorney General's Office, and the National Police of Peru , were putting into effect (here).

The campaign and actions taken appeared to have been a success since before the release of two other domestic films ‘Loco cielo de abril’ and ‘La cara del diablo’, INDECOPI together with the above institutions and organisation will yet again put into practice the same policy: campaigns and actions. INDECOPI's webpage reminds the population the importance of copyright. Added to this is the observation made: “the action of illegal reproduction or illegal marketing of films brings heavy penalties” as well as criminal penalties (up to 8 years in prison). The news also noted that during 2013, INDECOPI’s Copyright Directorate imposed several fines and seized pirate goods in the excess of 26,000,000 PEN (5,585,000 GBP --exchange rate: 0.214809 valid as of: 21/4/2014).

Finally, INDECOPI “urged the public to reject any offer of pirated material from unscrupulous traders who profit from the efforts of others and who do not hesitate to take advantage of the success of writers and artists.”

Charity begins at home

Patricia Covarrubia February 24, 2014 No comments:

The Peruvian IP Institute INDECOPI has sent a warning to those that engage in practices of piracy. The reminder of this illegal act, that is punished by fines and even up to 8 years in prison, comes before the release of the national film ‘El vientre’ (the womb).

In the same line, organizations and parties such as: the Commission to Combat Customs Crimes and Piracy, the Attorney General's Office, and the National Police of Peru, are working together bringing a campaign to combat piracy and to prevent such action that deter the creativity of authors and artists.

In this particular case, INDECOPI “decided that its regional offices in the cities where the film will be shown, implement the necessary actions against piracy. In the same line, the said Institute “urged the public to reject any offer of pirated material from unscrupulous traders who profit from the efforts of others.”

Reading the news, which is pleased to hear, one may wonder why this extra care? What about non-national products? Then I thought of the proverb ‘You should take care of family and people close to you before you worry about helping others’. Indeed, perhaps with this extra-action, film viewers may start to realize how important is to protect copyright. Hopefully it will give them a sense of deference for their own product and valuate their creators and artist. At the end, charity should begin at home.

Source INDECOPI.

Innocent until proven guilty...or the other way around?

Patricia Covarrubia February 10, 2014 No comments:

‘Presumed guilty’ is a Mexican movie that has been in the middle of some legal battles regarding the image of people appearing in movies. Back in 2011 the iptango posted the news here believing that it was THE END of the history. However, we received the latest info regarding such a case this week – the sequence...

Thanks to Phil Cox, Director at Global Law Marketing, we have a good summary of this affair (written by Abraham Diaz at Olivares):

“Luis Schmidt and Abraham Diaz (at Olivares) have recently won a civil court decision on behalf of the producers of the EMMY winning documentary, “Presumed Guilty”. 3 years ago Luis Schmidt and Abraham Diaz worked pro bono to lift an injunction on the distribution of the film into Mexican cinema’s. The injunction created much publicity and the lifting of it even more and then film went on to win an Emmy for best documentary. This recent decision now had precendent setting decisions that will govern what producers of documentaries can or cannot do regarding the image of people appearing in their documentaries. This is a landmark case.

At Olivares we assessed the producers of the documentary “Presumed Guilty”, which is controversial because it denounces vices of the Mexican Criminal Law system, which leads any individual to be in jeopardy of suddenly becoming a PRESUMED GUILTY.

Olivares defended the producers and director of the film by removing an injunction rendered by a District Court. This film was awarded an EMMY for best documentary in 2011 and was only shown in Mexican cinemas, and thus able to be seen by the world, because Olivares, on a pro bono basis, managed the legal process of removing the injunction, which at the time was fought at the political level because of the ramifications of the substance of the film coming to market, i.e. the world would see the injustice in the Mexican penal system and the corruption inherent within the Mexican justice system.

The scenario for making this denounce is one single and ordinary penal case, wherein an individual named JOSE ANTONIO ZUÑIGA (TOÑO) was accused or murdering another individual named JUAN CARLOS REYES PACHECO, and because of a criminal proceeding full of legal vices, TOÑO was convicted to 20 years of prison.

The investigation conducted by Roberto Hernandez and Layda Negrete, who are attorneys but were as well the producers of the documentary, brought to light all the vices of TOÑO’s proceeding. Likewise, in a landmark case Roberto and Layda obtained the permission to record all the hearings of TOÑO’s criminal proceeding, being the case that all this footage helped TOÑO to obtain his liberation after 2 years of imprisonment.

The footage of the hearings evolved into a one and a half hour documentary, and it was then that Roberto and Layda requested the legal assistance of OLIVARES to evaluate the risks involved in releasing it.

From the very beginning we knew that it was a very controversial documentary, which could trigger many law suits as the image of many individuals was appearing in the documentary without any authorization. However, the result of our analysis was that we could rely in the exceptions set forth in the Mexican Copyright Law, which allows the recording of the image of persons who are in public places and for informative or investigative purposes. Hence we gave green light to PRESUMED GUILTY.

Nevertheless, as a consequence of the exhibition of the documentary the producers and the distributors of the documentary were sued by 3 individuals appearing in the documentary; namely: i) the relatives of JUAN CARLOS REYES PACHECO (the murdered person); ii) VICTOR DANIEL REYES BRAVO, the cousin of the murdered person and who by the way was the only witness of charge against TOÑO; and iii) JOSÉ MANUEL ORTEGA SAAVEDRA, an ex police officer who was involved in the apprehension of TOÑO.

These 3 persons were claiming an indemnification derived from damages and moral damages. JUAN CARLOS’s relatives and VICTOR were represented by the same lawyer, and the sum of all what they were requesting amounted to 3,000 milllion Mexican Pesos (approximately 300 million USD), while ORTEGA was demanding 60 million pesos.

Last week we obtain 2 favorable ruling in the trials started by JUAN CARLOS’ relatives and VICTOR, being the case that as we had advised, the rules set forth in the Mexican Copyright Law are not applicable to VICTOR and JUAN CARLOS, and on the civil law side, they proved no damages at all. Hence, the producers and distributors that we represented have been totally absolved.

Today we have just received another favorable ruling from the 8th civil court, in the case started by ORTEGA, exactly in the same sense, namely, the rules set forth in the Mexican Copyright Law are not applicable to ORTEGA, and on the civil law side, he proved no damages at all. Hence, the producers and distributors that we represented have been absolved in that case too.”

Indeed, filming a documentary abouth the criminal judicial system in Mexico was a risky task per se. The documentary has disclosed a crude reality and the case is a milestone case regarding image/private rights of people.

The news can be found here, here and here.