Bill No. 4,968/2024 aims at modernizing the copyright law, however it poses economic and legal risks to digital platforms
The legislative proposal under consideration in the National Congress, numbered 4,968/2024 and currently awaiting a report from the Committee on Constitution, Justice, and Citizenship (CCJ), seeks to promote a comprehensive overhaul of Brazil’s Copyright Law (Law No. 9,610/1998), with a particular focus on the remuneration of content creators on digital platforms.
While the initiative is grounded in legitimate arguments for valuing intellectual creation and strengthening national culture, it presents a series of regulatory and economic challenges that directly impact the sustainability of the business model of streaming platforms operating in Brazil.
Among other changes, the bill mandates that authors, performers, and other rights holders receive mandatory remuneration for the availability of their works on digital platforms, regardless of preexisting contractual agreements.
In practice, this amounts to a direct intervention in private contractual relations, generating legal uncertainty and opening the door to judicial disputes over the primacy of previously executed contracts. Such a requirement could lead to a significant increase in operational costs for companies in a sector characterized by intense competition and often narrow profit margins.
Additionally, the bill proposes to double the rate of the Contribution for the Development of the National Film Industry (Condecine) from 3% to 6% of gross revenue from digital platforms. This represents a substantial increase in tax burden, which, when combined with the mandatory remuneration of rights holders, could threaten the financial viability of operations within the country.
The impact is expected to be even greater for foreign companies, particularly those relying on advertising-based monetization models, as the bill also considers global platform revenue when calculating copyright remuneration.
On the regulatory front, the proposal introduces obligations such as a minimum quota of national content on platforms, inspired by European legislation, and prohibits “digital payola”, which is the paid promotion of music, demanding greater transparency in the promotion and boosting of works. It also goes further by recognizing screenwriters and independent audiovisual producers as co-authors, granting them property rights.
These developments are significant from the perspective of valuing local production, but they require complex technical and administrative mechanisms to be properly implemented mechanisms that ensure regulatory neutrality and avoid excesses or undue favoritism.
There are also important legal issues to consider. The imposition of residual remuneration, the lack of clear criteria for identifying rights holders, and the exclusion of AI-generated content from legal protection raise questions about the practical application of the law. Such ambiguities may lead to increased litigation, creating a climate of legal instability that discourages investment and hampers technological innovation.
The direct impact on consumers must also be highlighted. With rising legal and tax obligations, it is likely that platforms will pass some of these costs onto users, leading to higher subscription prices. This scenario could restrict access to digital content in a country already marked by social and economic inequality, and may encourage illegal alternatives, such as piracy, which remains a structural challenge in Brazil.
Another critical point is the practical difficulty of applying national regulations to global platforms. The territorial logic of the law faces limitations when confronted with the decentralized and cross-border nature of the internet. The imposition of Brazil-specific rules, without coordination with international regulatory frameworks, could result in legal conflicts and even a withdrawal of foreign investment from the national market.
Although Bill 4,968/2024 represents a legitimate effort to balance the interests of creators and platforms, its current wording lacks mechanisms that ensure legal predictability, economic proportionality, and compatibility with the logic of the digital economy. The challenge lies in finding a middle ground that guarantees fair remuneration for creators without undermining contemporary audiovisual business models.
In this context, it is essential that the legislative process is guided by technical and transparent dialogue among government, the private sector, rights holders, and civil society. Only a normative framework based on data, evidence, and economic impact can ensure that Brazil advances in the protection of intellectual creation without compromising competitiveness, innovation, and public access to digital culture.
Fernanda Regina Negro de Oliveira Maluf,
Partner and expert at Ernesto Borges Law Firm, specializing in strategic litigation and legal consulting. University Professor. Specialist in Business Law from FGV and in Corporate Law from Insper.
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