Posicionamiento de Wikimedia México ante la “Propuesta de Ley de la Propiedad Industrial, de la Ley Federal del Derecho de Autor y del Código Penal Federal, suscrita por los diputados Aurora Denisse Ugalde Alegría y Héctor Humberto Gutiérrez"/en

De Wikimedia México
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Wikimedia Mexico's positioning regarding the "Amendment for Industrial Property Law, Federal Law on Copyright and the Federal Penal Code, signed by Aurora Denisse Ugalde Alegría and Héctor Humberto Gutiérrez, of Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI) Parliamentary Group"

According to the proposal of amendment appointed before, Wikimedia Mexico wishes to manifest its concern and reject to that reform on the law, due to that its approval -as it has been stablished- will restrict access to Wikipedia and other projects of free knowledge from Wikimedia Foundation, that altogether have about 25 million users in Mexico each month.

On the motifs of that proposal amendment, the obsolescence of the legislations at contemporary phenomena as internet, particularly as the use of knowledge for a common good -as well as the creator’s universal rights for the exploitation of their creations- is manifested. But, as we pointed out before on a simmilar motion that was presented a few years ago, the ambiguety within the creation of the law project may represent an innecesary legal risk to hundreds of people that participate on projects of free culture and colective interest. We particularly make reference to this paragraph:

Article 424. Imprisonment of six months to six years and three hundred to three thousand days of fine will be imposed to:
I to III…
IV. The administrator of any Internet site that puts to disposition of general public links or electronic archives that will allow the reproduction, distribution or public communication of any work :protected by the Federal Copyright Act without proper authorization from the rights holder.

Wikipedia’s work implies the link to archives pretected by the Federal Copyright Act, but based on the known right of citantion, with a clear effort on prohibit any attempt of plaged content. But the potential use of links in the project, regulated by thousands of volunteers, is innevitable and its in the everyday dinamic of the Internet without this being a crime or undermining author’s rights. As it is written, the law propossal will make impossible the existence of projects as ours in mexican territory, because Wikimedia movement and Wikimedia Foundation do not have the human, finantial, or technical resources to look over such links. Besides, other countries –as the ones you’ve named on the motion- have considered thar the fact of linking is not a crime itself.

The use of a link is merely instrumental for the ones who make it and its Internet’s own nature tu make it this way. The actual redaction of the law proposal –as general and ambiguous as it is- makes criminals out of millions of users whose intention is not to diminish author’s rights but to make use of the internet as they have been using it until now.

On the other hand, making Internet Service Providers (ISP) contributors on Internet investigations, falls into possible violations to the fundamental rights of privacy and information access. The State -through privates or particulars- will be trying to obtain information about what the citizens/users acces to from their homes, based on mere presumptions of delinquency, which could be translated into the infringment of the liberty and juridical safety guarantees.

The illegal use and distribution of content protected by the Federal Copyright Act in our country is an action already contemplated on our legislation. Facing this situation, we want to state that there are many legal options denominated Creative Commons that make copyright more flexible to “some rights reserved”, making the sharing, distribution, and use of protected material legally possible if the authors agree. We appeal your attention to give legal certainty, from the current copyright law, to situations like this that have been being used in recent years in Mexico. It will be a great step for Mexico to recognize this licences from its own copyright legislation.

The legislator should understand that there are no easy solutions to intellectual property issues in Mexico. A pen scrawl on the law will not be enought to settle the protection of author’s patrimonial rights and the constant need of comunication and culture of the general public. Considering that, ultimately, the public whose rights are threatened with being restricted just wants a fuller access to cultural goods.

Criminalizing the great mass in front of author’s economic rights is, at the end of the day, imposing the rights of a few over the rights of many, which undermines even the democratic principles of our country.

We agree that “Mexico requires updated laws that will contribute to an ecosystem that will spark off the creativity and the innovation” but with a legislation that will prove to be fair and will not place obstacles to the development of other projects that contribute in that creativity and innovation as Wikimedia’s projects, that motivate human knowledge without restrictions to millions of mexicans.

On behalf of Wikimedia Mexico,
Iván Martínez, president.