[A2k] an interesting judicial decision in Colombia

[carolina botero]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Hello to all! (sorry for cross posting)

Surprisingly the Supreme Court decided a copyright criminal case during a
cassation procedure overturning the prior decisions (2 instances) of
prision:
  *"Colombian ruling on copyrights: "Without profit there is no criminal
ofence*

In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court of Colombia, the highest criminal
judicial tribunal and Cassation Court (deals with the Cassation procedures
also known in other juridical traditions as right of appeal on points of
law), determined that in order to establish a criminal violation of
copyright, it is necessary to find if the criminal conduct is for
profit-making, if it causes effective injury and if the intention is to
cause harm on the right holder.

Judicial interpretation on copyright issues is scarce and uncertain in
Colombia. In this context, the Supreme Court's Cassation ruling 29,188
released 2 weeks ago (April 30, 2008) has set guidelines for *"the
development of national jurisprudence on the nature, scope and meaning of
the criminal protection of copyright"*.

The reasoning behind the judgement involves the transformation of three key
points for the interpretation of the rules of criminal copyright: 1. The
Berne three steps test
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_three-step_test>(Art. 9.2 Berne
Convention that was replicated by Art. 21 Decision 351 of
the Andean Community) is an interpretation issue for the judge. 2. The
profit-making has to be analysed as a subjective element when approaching
criminal ofences related to the economic rights of authorship on Copyright
(Colombia's system is derived from the "rights of author" tradition). 3. The
mere use of illegal software is not a crime..."

*You may continue reading: in the icommons site*:
http://icommons.org/articles/colombian-ruling-on-copyrights-without-profit-there-is-no-criminal-ofence
Also in spanish
http://www.karisma.org.co/carobotero/index.php/2008/05/09/equinoxio-la-corte-suprema-de-justicia-sienta-precedente-sobre-animo-de-lucro-uso-personal-etc/

Carolina
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http://www.karisma.org.co/carobotero
http://www.equinoxio.org
http://www.aprenderlalibertad.org



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http://www.karisma.org.co/carobotero
http://www.equinoxio.org
http://www.aprenderlalibertad.org