Please find below a sign-on letter to Colombian legislative leaders regarding the recently released bill to amend Colombia’s law to implement the US-Colombia FTA. The core message of this letter is to alert officials and civil society that “upon review of Bill No. 201 of 2012[1] we find that many of the changes that upgrade protection for copyright go beyond what the FTA requires and are, in fact, more restrictive than U.S. law itself.”
Colombian civil society report that the bill is being fast tracked – it was passed out of committee a day after it was publicly released last week and is slated for full debate in the parliament on Tuesday next week. Since the legislature is moving very rapidly on this, we hope to solicit endorsements in a short time period. Please sign on by emailing your name and contact information to pijip@wcl.american.edu by Thursday, April 5.
Text of the letter
Original Legal Sources:
- Bill no. 201 of 2012 (Official version in Spanish)
- Unofficial English translation
- Colombian Copyright Law (English) [WIPO page with links to the 1982 law, amendments from 1993, 2001, and 2010; IP-related laws including Law no. 1032 of 2006].
- Decision 351 of the Andean Community
- Text of the Colombia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement
- Copyright Law of the United States
