The copyright law of Brazil is primarily based on Law Nº9,610 from 19 February 1998. Additionally, Brazil has signed the Berne Convention and the TRIPS Agreement.
Brazil's first constitution, the Imperial Constitution of 1824, did not deal with creative works, and instead only mentioned patents:
The first legal document to deal with the protection of creative works in Brazil was the Law of 11 August 1827, which gave jurist course professors exclusive publication rights to their course's compendia for the 10 years following their approval by the government.
However, the general protection of creative works in Brazil first came from article 261 of the Criminal Code of 1830. It protected any text ("or stamp") which had been written, composed or translated by Brazilian citizens, for the lifetime of the author, plus 10 years if they had any heirs. If such works were made by corporations, the protection lasted for 10 years after publication.
While it was a step in the direction of an all-encompassing copyright protection, the Code of 1830 protected only written works, not any other kind of artwork; this and other issues would be criticized by scholars in the decades that followed its enactment.
For example, the then-barely invented photographs were also not considered for the 1830 text, and would likely not be illegal to reproduce in the following years as the technology developed. However, one must also consider the relative difficulty it would have been, in the mid to late 19th century, to copy or otherwise reproduce (a potentially single physical copy of) a photograph without authorization from the owner.
Following the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889, copyright protections were expanded to encompass any type of artistic work – and no longer only literary works – in the Penal Code of 1890. The duration of copyright wasn't changed; it still lasted for the lifetime of the author, plus 10 years if they had any heirs.
In 1891, copyright would finally become constitutional, in the first constitution of the Brazilian republic. That, in itself, was a landmark in terms of Brazilian copyright protections. The law had a clear separation of patents and copyright, and delegated the duration of copyright to the Penal Code – as such, it remained as lifetime of the author, plus 10 years if there were heirs.
On 1 August 1898, Law Nº496 was promulgated, the first to explicitly mention "author's rights". It protected an author's right to reproduce (or authorize the reproduction of) their work – be it "literary, scientific or artistic" – through "publication, translation, representation or execution of any other kind". Counting from 1 January of the year of publication, the protection lasted 50 years for exact reproductions (i.e. exact copies), but it would only protect for 10 years the exclusive right to translate or otherwise represent the work in a non-reproductive way.
For dead authors, owners of a posthumous work benefit from the author's rights, lasting 50 years counting from the date of death of the author. Author's rights of anonymous or pseudonym works belong to the work's editor, but if the author is found or discovered, they obtain the rights.
Crucially, this protection wasn't automatic: it was required that works be submitted to the National Library of Brazil until 31 December of the year following the publication. For printed works, photographs and lithographs, the submission required "a copy in perfect conservation status"; for paintings, drawings, sculptures or other, a "perfectly clear" photograph of the work. A side effect of this time limit is that it would have made works created before 1897 uncopyrightable, as they would need to have been registered before the law was even promulgated.
For works where the author is known, copyright lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years, counting from 1 January of the subsequent year after their death.
If the author is unknown or anonymous, any unpublished work is in the public domain. For published works where the author is anonymous or a pseudonym, the publishing party retains copyright for 70 years after publication, again counting from 1 January of the subsequent year. If the author is found or discovered before the work's copyright expires, it reverts to being lifetime plus 70 years.
Audiovisual works (such as films) and photographs are protected for 70 years after their publication, counting from 1 January of the subsequent year.
Apart from expired copyright and unknown authors, works in the public domain include those from authors who have died and left no successors.
However, copyright is not all-encompassing in Brazil – it has some limitations. The following are not considered copyright infringements:
Paraphrasing and parodying are also allowed, given that they are neither faithful reproductions of the originating work, nor disparaging to it. Additionally, Brazilian law has a freedom of panorama clause, concerning permanently displayed works in the public space. It allows for their reproduction through paintings, drawings, photographs and "audiovisual procedures".
Brazilian copyright law does not refer to its self-imposed limitations as "fair dealing" (or "fair use"), although some of them – such as the right to quote – could be considered as such. That said, the law has a specific clause preventing what is most commonly referred to, usually in online spaces, as "fair use":