Tenso Research Shows Brazil Does Copyright Better Than You

Episode Notes: Tenso

In writing the Tenso episode script, Don and I had so many things we wanted to say about how awesome Brazil is when it comes to their forward-thinking approach to democratizing culture and reforming their copyright laws. We can only squeeze so much information into a 3-5 minute episode before it begins to feel like it’s straying off topic, so we decided to share what we know here on the KYM blog.

Internet Usage in Brazil

Being the fifth largest and one of the most multicultural nations in the world, internet usage in Brazil spans wide and deep, with over 69 million Brazilians online everyday. According to the most recent data provided by World Bank:

Copyright Laws in Brazil

• 1802: Brazil becomes one of the first countries to establish a national copyright regime, after the United Kingdom, France and United States.

• 2001: Brazil hosts the World Social Forum; an open, non-governmental meeting for debating and coordinating anti-globalization strategies.

• 2003: Gilberto Gil, a well-known Brazilian singer/songwriter, is appointed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to be Brazil's Minister of Culture; Gil creates a partnership between the national government and Creative Commons to promote legal licenses to facilitate artistic collaboration before leaving office in 2008.

• 2005: Brazilian government agencies and organizations start using Linux, an open-source operating system.

• 2010: Copyright laws are updated to prohibit Digital Rights Management (DRM) policies from taking effect when works qualify as "Fair Use".

A Remix Manifesto

This clip from the 2008 documentary Rip! A Remix Manifesto contains some great quotes from Gil, Lawrence Lessig, and others shedding light on how Brazil is a society where it is widely understood that building upon each other’s work is something to be valued and encouraged, not prohibited.

Research Credit

Thanks also goes out to Brazilian meme researcher Fernando Fontanella for bringing Tenso to our attention in the first place. Kenyatta and I had the pleasure of meeting Fernando in person during Roflcon II last spring.

Our love affair with Brazilian internet culture doesn’t end there! Earlier this year in June, our own Ellie Rountree spoke at the Social Media Brasil conference in São Paulo. You can read more about it on Sonico Blog.
Be sure to check out some of our other memes of Brazilian origin in the links below! Even more can be found here!