CC in Honduras
![[1]](https://www.picserver.org/images/highway/countries/honduras.jpg){kind=link}
Case Study – Country Honduras[1], Central America – This is a piece of the "Final Project Sept 2020 Creative Commons Cert"[2]. prepared by Giovanni Antunez, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0]International
For this case study, I chose Honduras because I am originally from Honduras and now reside in the United States. Honduras is considered one of the poorest countries in the world. In my opinion this description is influenced by monetary and political reasons, especially the level of governmental corruption.[3] Honduras is located in the middle of Central America, it has an extension of 112,492 km2 (43,433 sq mi), the size of the US state of Tennessee; with a population of roughly 9.5 million with the majority very young (less than 18 years-old), the Honduran life expectancy at birth is 75.1 years by 2018.[4]
Honduran’s copyright’s environment laws and public norms are broadly described in the document Wikimedia “Commons: Copyright rules by territory/Honduras.”[5] This document refers to the main piece of copyright’s law in Honduras, which is the “Law on Copyright and Related Rights” same as “Decree No. 4-99-E, amended by Decree No. 16-2006.”[6][7], The foundations for this decree are found on the Berne convention,[8] and it has similarities with the U.S. copyright’s law discussed in the CC cert, for example, it specifies that the duration of copyrights for a work is the author’s life plus and additional 75 years after its death.[9] In the U.S. is 70 as mentioned in the CC cert. The Honduran’s decree also refers to something that resembles the public domain, this can be found in a section that refers to copyright’s regulations for translations of classic books, and international editions of books, which are exempt of copyright regulations if they are used for education, and not for profit.[10] Publications from the United Nations (UN), and the Organization of American States (OAS) are protected in the Honduran’s copyright’s law under the Berne Convention and are free for copy and distribution for educational purposes.[11]
When I searched for online information about the use of the CC licenses in Honduras, I did not find any specifics, and had to return to the same decree[12] to find information that resembles the CC licenses. I found some resemblance in the following examples: one is the regulation for electronic publications and media, which has copyright’s laws especially designed to protect its reproduction and translation.[13] As I continued the search, it occurred to me that may be two of the major Honduran public universities may have reference to CC licenses, so, I consulted the website of the National Autonomous University[14], and the Pedagogic National University.[15] And found none. I also searched for content related to CC licenses (in Honduras) under UNESCO reports[16], or, similar sources, and I could not find any specifics. At this point, I concluded that after all of the searches for information, and other not listed here due to lack of relevance – there is lack of use of CC licenses in the country, although I found an image of the word, Honduras, which is CC licensed, and I used at the beginning of this essay.[17] I decided to include the picture because it gives me the impression that there is probably some CC licensing work in the country, but this work has not been published yet.[18] Finally, from a positive side of the situation, I think that there is a great opportunity in Honduras to engage educators at academic institutions, the civil society, and the public in general in the country about CC licenses.
References
1. "Honduras", From Wikimedia Commons Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
2. "Sept 2020 Creative Commons Cert" from "Creative Commons Certificate" Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
3. "Honduras", From Wikimedia Commons Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
4. "Ten Facts about Life Expectancy in Honduras,""The Borgen Project". For some reason, the system does not let me add this reference, apparently as today (01/13/2021) the website for this project is banned, or, blocked. No License provided for this article.
5. “Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Honduras.” From Wikimedia Commons, Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
6. [Honduran] “Law on Copyright and Related Rights.”] Also known as Decree No. 4-99-E, as amended by Decree No. 16-2006.” Originally in Spanish, with a link to machine translation in English. Wikimedia Commons. "WIPO portal" free content but some content in this website is not free of charge. No license stated.
7. Laws by Country", From Wikimedia Commons, Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
8. “The Berne convention about copyright laws.” "Wikipedia". Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
The Berne Convention was created in 1886 for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
9. “Decree No. 4-99-E, as amended by Decree No. 16-2006,” archive copy at the Wayback Machine or, [Honduran] “Law on Copyright and Related Rights.” (Title III, article 16).
10. “Decree No. 4-99-E, as amended by Decree No. 16-2006,” archive copy at the Wayback Machine or, [Honduran] “Law on Copyright and Related Rights.” (Title VII, article 44).
11. “Decree No. 4-99-E, as amended by Decree No. 16-2006,” archive copy at the Wayback Machine or, [Honduran] “Law on Copyright and Related Rights.” (Title VI, article 16).
12. [Honduran] “Law on Copyright and Related Rights.” Also known as “Decree No. 4-99-E, archive copy at the Wayback Machine as amended by Decree No. 16-2006.”
13. “Decree No. 4-99-E, as amended by Decree No. 16-2006,” archive copy at the Wayback Machine or, [Honduran] “Law on Copyright and Related Rights.” "Chapter VII. Reproduction and translation of works". archive copy at the Wayback Machine
14."National Autonomous University of Honduras". Main website. [https://bibliovirtual.unah.edu.hn/ "Library information".
15. "Pedagogic University of Honduras". Main website. "Library information".
16.“Director del IESALC/UNESCO impartió conferencia sobre…” Found in the "University Teaching Blogs".
17. [2] "Honduras. Picture by Nick Youngson",] licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.
18. Personal comments. I have no base for these comments, but it is a possibility that this is one of the reasons for the lack of information on CC licenses.
