The Chilean government has included a controversial provision in its new bill on national reconstruction and economic development that would allow digital companies to use protected content without paying copyright fees, according to latercera.com.
The measure proposes amending the Intellectual Property Law to permit the reproduction, adaptation, and distribution of lawfully published works without the authorization of, or payment to, the rights holder. The stated goal is to facilitate the extraction and statistical analysis of large-scale datasets.
The legal text states that “any act of reproduction, adaptation, distribution, or communication to the public of a lawfully published work is lawful, without the need for remuneration or authorization from the rights holder, when such act is performed exclusively for the purpose of extraction, comparison, classification, or any other statistical analysis of language, sound, or image data.”
The Minister of Finance justified the measure, arguing that it aims to attract investment in offshore data mining for artificial intelligence, in an effort to revitalize the national economy.
Industry and Trade Group Reaction
The measure has met with significant backlash, as an identical provision was rejected by the Chamber of Deputies in 2025 during debates regarding the regulation of artificial intelligence systems.
The National Press Association warned that this provision would enable big tech companies to use content from Chilean media outlets without licenses or compensation, which would erode the economic foundation of professional journalism.
Other industry groups, including the National Television Association, the Chilean Broadcasters Association, and the Chilean Society of Authors and Performers, have also raised alarms regarding the risks of allowing content distribution without royalty payments.
Senator Arturo Squella, president of the Republican Party, recommended postponing the debate on the matter to seek greater understanding between authorities and those affected.
