The global voice for consumers La voix des Consommateurs à travers le monde La voz global para la defensa de los consumidores

BRAZIL for CI Regional Meeting A2K - Access to Knowledge MARIA INÊS DOLCI PRO TESTE Institutional Coordinator Present Situation 30 March 2009

Summary of issues of concern to consumers in BRAZIL – Cost and availability of learning materials The current regimen of copyrights and commercial usage on the access to the knowledge, regarding to the access at the educational materials copyrights shows high costs. Example: a medical book can cost about 3 thousand reais - around U$$ These costs, linked to the copyrights regimen makes impossible to have access to the learning materials. Students copyright the books and when one student buys it the exchange them for many years.

Summary of issues of concern to consumers in BRAZIL Locks on access such as region coding and DRM - Digital Rights Management Brazilian consumers find abusivities in the technological tools. The market removes of the consumer the possibility to decide on as to use acquired cultural goods of legitimate form.

Summary of issues of concern to consumers in BRAZIL Restrictions on copying for personal use Brazilian law is very strict and does not allow copies even for non-commercial status. The problem is that the consumers buy products and hire services without knowing that they can not reproduce it. They are not informed about its restrictions. It is common to pay more for and not to have the right of having copies.

BRAZIL´s intellectual property regime Which IP conventions has your country signed? First law passed dealing with patentability of inventions First legal registration of trademarks Joined the Paris Convention Enacted its first IP law Acceded to the Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artistic works Member of the Madrid Agreement for the registration of trademark Joined the Universal Copyright Convention Created the National industrial Property Institute (INPI) PRESENT - Part of the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations and the TRIPs agreement

BRAZIL´s intellectual property regime – To what extent are these enforced in local law? In the past 15 years the Brazilian IP system has undergone significant changes. At the Brazilian National Congress passed the current Industrial Property Act and Brazil signed the Agreement on Trade - Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. There is a law project in Brazil that is related to the cybernetic crimes law at Internet – crimes on Internet

BRAZIL´s intellectual property regime Are there any bilateral trade agreements on IP? 2008 – Major areas of progress were on a new “comprehensive and modern IP protection law” and on improved enforcement of obligations under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement The Brazilian government report said that in 2004 it established a National Council to Combat Piracy and Crimes against Intellectual Property, an equal partnership between government representatives and private sector representatives. The Brazilian Association of Software Companies gave the partnership an award in 2007 for the decline of software piracy from 64 to 60 percent in a year. Legislation adopted in 2007 on layout designs of integrated circuits also was a significant change, a separate official from the WTO secretariat told reporters. Integrated circuits, or silicon chips, are essential to most modern electronics, including computers and mobile telephones. Previously, the designs of these circuits had no specific law in Brazil under which they were protected.

BRAZIL´s intellectual property regime Is your country listed in the US 301 Watch List? BRAZIL Brazil will remain on the Watch List in The United States conducted an Out-of-Cycle.301 Watch List Review in 2007, which resulted in Brazil being maintained on the Watch List in February Special 301 review. The United States will continue to pursue bilateral dialogue on IPR enforcement and other IPR issues. United States encourages Brazil to strengthen its IPR enforcement legislation, take more vigorous action to address book and Internet piracy, and consider acceding to and implementing the WIPO Internet Treaties.

Other communications rights in BRAZIL – Are blogs or monitored or censored? Prossecutors in Brazil claim that there are users engaged in illegal activity on Orkut and they are going after Google because so far it has refused to hand over information about them. Also s and blogs are monitored or censored.

Other communications rights in BRAZIL Is Internet access filtered (and if so how?) Brazil doesn’t normally filter the Internet, and neither ISPs nor the government have seen reason to invest in sophisticated filtering apparatus.

Other communications rights in BRAZIL Is access to government information open? There is a law of Transparency, but many of the cities are not following it.

Other communications rights in BRAZIL – What privacy and data protection laws exist? – Laws have been introduced both protecting and infringing upon individual privacy. – n 2000 and 2001, a trio of bills were introduced in the Senate and House requiring ISP's to maintain proposed personally identifiable information such as name, ID #, and address along with all of an individual's Internet connections, including IP address, login & logout time. – Divulgence of the information could be made only in accordance with the law, with a penalty for unauthorized indulgence. These three bills have since been appended onto another, which is still pending in committee.

Other communications rights in BRAZIL To what extent does government policy favour software interoperability and open standards? It also evidences several “bottle necks” that are almost unsurpassable if there are no changes to the current development of public policies.

Access to the Internet in BRAZIL – Penetration of broadband, fixed-line and mobile Internet services (see this Web site for statistics)this Web site Households that have Internet access In 2007, the Internet reached 17% of Brazilian households, a fact that represents a growth of 3p.p. comparing to the Internet presence in households checked last year. Computer and Internet access ownership remain completely related to socioeconomic and regional aspects: the higher the income, the higher the penetration of the equipment in the households. The regions Northeast and North keep presenting the lowest access percentages.

Access to the Internet in BRAZIL – Penetration of broadband, fixed-line and mobile Internet services (see this Web site for statistics)this Web site More than 50% of the households connected to the Internet have broadband, which represents a 10% increase in relation to the previous year. However, a large percentage of these households (42%) still connect mainly via dial-up modems. Internet access has had a much less significant growth. In 2006, 14% of homes had Internet connections. In 2007, the percentage found by the CGI.br survey was 17%.

Access to the Internet in BRAZIL – Penetration of broadband, fixed-line and mobile Internet services (see this Web site for statistics) this Web site Broadband connections are already available in 50% of the Brazilian households that have Internet access, but 42% still access the web via traditional dial-up modem. In 2006 dial-up access was predominant (49%) while broadband connections represented 40% of the households type of access. The growth of broadband in the period was, consequently, of 10p.p.. Since the break-up of the former incumbent Telebras in 1998, the Brazilian broadband market has been organised regionally.

Access to the Internet in BRAZIL – Penetration of broadband, fixed-line and mobile Internet services (see this Web site for statistics)this Web site The country has a wide-ranging fixed line network. The density of fixed lines in service stood at 21.5 per 100 inhabitants. Today there is 12 million of fixed line taht is not being used. The concessionaires had 84 per cent installed accesses and 94 per cent accesses in service. However, the cable infrastructure is still limited to the main urban centres only. NET and TVA are the main cable TV operators. NET is available in 44 cities including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Brasilia, Florianopolis and Goiania..

Access to the Internet in BRAZIL – Penetration of broadband, fixed-line and mobile Internet services (see this Web site for statistics)this Web site Brazil's mobile phone market is highly competitive with about eight mobile operators fighting for a share of the booming market. They are: Vivo, Claro, TIM Brasil, Telemar Oi (with its 2008 acquisition Amazonia Celular), Telemig Celular, CTBC Telecom, Sercomtel Celular and Brazil Telecom. These operators, together with one trunking operator which left the 3G auction empty-handed (Nextel Brasil) operate in different regions. Brazil’s newest mobile operator is Unicel. It plans to go live in September 2008 in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area, offering services under the brand name Aeiou. Of the still nine mobile operators, four hold over 90 per cent of the national market.

Access to the Internet in BRAZIL – Penetration of broadband, fixed-line and mobile Internet services (see this Web site for statistics)this Web site It is estimated that Brazil holds about one third of all the mobile subscribers in Latin America, with mobile penetration still growing at a rapid pace. GSM is still the favoured technology, with a 3G auction held by the regulator in December Operators have lost no time. Once they had secured 3G licenses and exchanged contracts with the regulator in April 2008, they immediately started regional deployments. In May 2008, BrT launched 3G services in region 2, while Oi did so in regions 1 and 3. TIM Brasil extended its 3G network using the 2100MHz band to launch UMTS services in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Brasilia. Claro followed, using the 2100MHz band.

Access to the Internet in BRAZIL – Laws or policies that impact on Internet access – Policies for digital inclusion remain within the limits traced by the market, trusting that it will be possible to treat everyone as consumers of a paid service. – Nowadays in Brazil we have regional monopoly of the private companies trusting that digital inclusion will take place from regional monopoly of the private companies.

Access to the Internet in BRAZIL – Do ISPs treat all content equally (“net neutrality”)? – Many consumers complaints are concerning to the high speed hired by them, but in fact they have it low.

Access to the Internet in BRAZIL Notable deficits in infrastructure, skills or content There are barriers to acess Internet, like qualification of the people, acess and high cost. Not having the benefits of the “Computers for All” program, Internet access has had a much less significant growth. In 2006, 14% of homes had Internet connections. In 2007, the percentage found by the CGI.br survey was 17%.

Access to the Internet in BRAZIL Affordability and accessibility issues – It is expensive to afford Internet system – If policies for digital inclusion remain within the limits traced by the market, the policies trusting that it will be possible to treat everyone as consumers of a paid service. – Complaints at PRO TESTE - Access fails; less velocity hired.

Conclusions Why have you joined CI's Global Consumer Dialogue on A2K issues? It is essential to give access to knowledge in order to promote human rights, economic and cultural development linked to innovation, individual freedom and criativity of the consumers It is need to have more infra-structure for Internet Acquisition of knowledge has acquired a vital role in social and economic policies Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a central role in the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge

Conclusions What do consumers in your country most need to get out of this project? Social inclusion related to Acess to knowledge Capacitation to Access to knowledge and understand their rights To have better understanding from the government to promote free access to the to the citizens with low price To promover public debates for the inclusion of poor people, that are excluded To follow public policies em order to promote less price and free access To promote public mobilization for a global digital acccess To promote debates and needs for public investment in education to enable all citizens to benefit from the use of the network. The increased inclusion should soon find obstacles of social exclusion that will drastically limit consumption in Brazil.

Conclusions How do you propose to contribute to our activities? To follow government policies To follow investments directly in the provision of Internet services for the general public To follow the mechanisms to promote the access to Internet for NGOs, grass roots movements and public basic schools. To increase democratic participation by empowering the voices of the lowest strata of the society. It is necessary to provide to registered organizations a laptop computer with moderm and an Internet account (from one of the private Internet providers). To promote debates, Public Hearings To promote research to check the services of Internt and broad band

Conclusions How can CI help you? The get involved in this project to reinforce the needs of consumers for reducing cost of access (hardware & software, telecommunications) Encourage uptake of ICT tools and skills among businesses and government institutions among individuals at home and in educational institutions To foment discussion on Intellectual Property and to follow the changing laws To make possible to change laws and citizens rights.

MARIA INÊS DOLCI PRO TESTE A2K - Access to Knowledge