The basic copyright law of Argentina is ''Law No. 11.723 of September 28, 1933, on Legal Intellectual Property Regime (Copyright Law, as last amended by Law No. 26.570 of November 25, 2009)''.
History
Copyright law
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
in Argentina was first introduced by the 1853
Constitution of Argentina
The Constitution of the Argentine Nation ( es, Constitución de la Nación Argentina) is the basic governing document of Argentina, and the primary source of existing law in Argentina. Its first version was written in 1853 by a constitutional ...
. The article 17º states that "''Every author or inventor is the exclusive owner of his work, invention or discovery, for the term granted by law''".
Juan Bautista Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi (August 29, 1810 – June 19, 1884) was an Argentine political theorist and diplomat. Although he lived most of his life in exile in Montevideo, Uruguay and in Chile, he influenced the content of the Constitution of Argenti ...
intended for the copyright term to be indefinite, but during the writing of the Constitution it was decided to give a time limit, as done in Chile and the United States. The enactment of the Constitution was followed by the Law 111, but it was a
patent law
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
and had no mention to artistic works. However, despite the lack of a specific copyright law, jurisprudence would usually still grant copyright protection based in the Constitutional article alone. For example, there was a trial about an unauthorized edition of
José Hernández's ''
Martín Fierro
''Martín Fierro'', also known as ''El Gaucho Martín Fierro'', is a 2,316-line epic poem by the Argentine writer José Hernández. The poem was originally published in two parts, ''El Gaucho Martín Fierro'' (1872) and ''La Vuelta de Martín F ...
'', where the civil justice of Buenos Aires considered the 17º article fully operative.
Proyecto
During the Argentina Centennial
The Argentina Centennial was celebrated on May 25, 1910. It was the 100th anniversary of the May Revolution, when viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros was ousted from office and replaced with the Primera Junta, the first national government.
Co ...
the French G. Clemenceau learned that one of his theater plays was being played without authorization. After a dispute about the topic, the first copyright law was enacted in 1913. It was the 9.141 law. A new and more detailed copyright law would be enacted in 1933, the 11.723 law, which is still in force.
Copyright terms
For most works, copyright lasts for the lifetime of the author, plus 70 years after the January 1 following his or her death (Art. 5).[Ley 11.723](_blank)
(Pseudo-)Anonymous works belonging to institutions, corporations, or legal entities are protected for 50 years after publication (Art. 8).
References
External links
Law No. 11.723 of September 28, 1933, on Legal Intellectual Property Regime (Copyright Law, as last amended by Law No. 26.570 of November 25, 2009)
English language.
Ley N° 11.723 de 28 de septiembre de 1933 sobre el Régimen Legal de la Propiedad Intelectual (Ley sobre el Derecho de Autor, modificada por última vez por la Ley Nº 26.570 de 25 de noviembre de 2009)
Spanish language.
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
Argentine legislation
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