CLASSES AS THE OBJECT OF COPYRIGHT PROTECTION

Abstract

The intent of recording classes as a means to consubstantiate claims against teachers and professors for so-called “indoctrination” has recently gained legal relevance. Inciting the recording and unauthorized public exposure of classes is one of the tactical expedients adopted by the “Escola Sem Partido” (ESP) – School Without Parties – movement, which pursues a multilevel agenda of statutory change geared towards restricting academic freedom. ESP is presented as non-partisan by its partisans, who attempt to cover their strong denial of political pluralism embodied in the Brazilian Constitution of 1988. The Brazilian legal system protects classes as copyright property pertaining to teachers/professors, to which moral and material entitlements ensue. Such legal protection means unauthorized public disclosures of videos or recordings of classes violate author’s entitlements and implicate civil liability of those responsible for unduly recording and disclosing them. This paper intends to highlight procedures available to teachers and professors whose copyright entitlements over classes have been breached. The main objective is to provide answers to the question: that rights do teachers and professors whose classes have been recorded and divulged without their authorization have, especially in a context of persecutory incentives carried out by political movements such as the ESP?