The Cultura Livre project seeks to establish a dialogue between countries of the South about the issues surrounding Culture, Media, and Intellectual Property. Its objective is to generate and put into practice instruments for the promotion of development, access to education, knowledge, and democratization of information.
The Centre for Technology and Society is a global leader and a pioneer in research and studies in Intellectual Property in Brazil and is coordinated by professor Ronaldo Lemos (S.J.D., University of São Paulo and LL.M., Harvard University) and Bruno Magrani (LL.B Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, and Masters Degree student by Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Intelectual). Professor Lemos is also responsible for the dissemination of the Creative Commons Project in Brazil (
www.creativecommons.org.br). The Link Centre is a leader in research and training for the development of politics, regulations, and Information Technology management in South Africa, and is coordinated by Heather Ford, Researcher at the University of Wits, Johannesburg. The project is sponsored by the Ford Foundation.
The Cultura Livre project aims to study the impact of intellectual property for development, media, and culture. In short, the project explores how changes in the intellectual property regime affect the daily life of artists, journalists, and bloggers and the subsequent ramifications in media and society.
Furthermore, the project will follow the changes in the international intellectual property regime and examine their impact on economic development. Special attention and follow ups will be given to the Development Agenda, presented to the international community by Brazil and Argentina, with support of a group of countries called the "friends of development." The objective of the Agenda is that Intellectual Property becomes a prominent factor in development and that the regime not only be one favorable to developed countries. The proposal is currently in the process of being negotiated in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). WIPO recently accepted the Centre of Technology and Society (CTS) at FGV DIREITO RIO as an official observer, permitting its participation in and contribution to all meetings regarding the Development Agenda. Through its participation, CTS seeks to provide a Brazilian perspective in defending access to knowledge and cultural autonomy.
The project also cooperates with local initiatives in Brazil and in Africa. In Brazil, for example, it works with the city hall of Olinda, local content making available through Creative Commons licenses; the NGO
Eletrocooperativa in Salvador that works to promote free musical production; and with
ccMixter South Africa, where songs can be freely downloaded and remixed by anyone.
The site will track the arguments carried out at WIPO meetings in real time, translated and explained for a non-legal audience, thanks to our direct correspondent in Geneva. It will explain why these issues matter for the greater society and what is at stake in the process. The site will also contain the studies produced by the project and recent news about local initiatives supported by Cultura Livre.
The publication of a comprehensive study on the competitive structure in the cinema market is planned for March of 2005, analyzing the difficulties for Brazilian films to make it to the national movie market from an economic point of view. Every six months, another major study will be published, always focusing on important issues in the media, culture, and intellectual property.
Thus the Cultura Livre project represents, in a sense, one more step in the fight for cultural emancipation by providing access to goods and cultural products and promoting engagement in global civil society. It sets out to establish an equilibrium between public and private interests, with an eye to greater civil society, especially in developing countries. In sum, the project seeks to develop tools for developing countries to enable greater access to culture and knowledge in an efficient, inclusive, and democratic way.
For more information on the project, please contact Bruno Magrani at magrani [@] fgv.br or call the numbers linked to below.
The Project 
