Ley de Derecho de Autor y Derechos Conexos, Decreto 33-98 (compilations, databases, and technological measures)
Decreto Número 33-98, arts. 16 y 35, bases de datos y compilaciones
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force since 21 June 1998.
A database right rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 5 September 2026.
What it requires
- A compilation or database whose selection or arrangement is an original creation is protected as a collection of works; copying that selection or arrangement without authorization can infringe, even though the underlying data itself is never protected by this law.
- Do not circumvent a technological measure that controls access to a protected work, and do not manufacture, import, or traffic in a device or service designed mainly to do so.
- No text-and-data-mining exception exists in Guatemalan copyright law; reproducing a protected compilation's own original selection or arrangement to build a training dataset has no statutory carve-out and needs the rightsholder's authorization or a fair-use-style limitation.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Guatemala enforces copyright infringement, including of a protected compilation or database, through the Código Penal's article 274 (as reformed by Decreto 11-2006), not through a penalty clause inside Decreto 33-98 itself; article 274 carries one to six years' imprisonment and a fine of fifty thousand to seven hundred fifty thousand quetzales.
Penalty structure
Criminal penalty under Código Penal art. 274 (violación al derecho de autor y derechos conexos, reformado por Decreto 11-2006), the statute that enforces Decreto 33-98's civil rights; Decreto 33-98's own enforcement chapter (art. 133 et seq.) provides only civil, oral-trial procedure.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- 5 September 2026
- Minimum
- 50,000
- Currency
- GTQ
- Fixed cap
- 750,000
What it reaches
Obligation class
Access restriction, Licensing
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Article 16(b) protects anthologies, dictionaries, compilations, databases and similar works as derivative works, without prejudice to the copyright in the underlying original works, where the selection or arrangement of the material is itself an original creation.
Article 35 confirms that compilations or databases, whether machine-readable or in any other form, are protected as collections of works under the statute, but that protection does not extend to the data or material contained in the compilation, and does not prejudge any copyright existing in that material.
Articles 133 quinquies and 133 sexties, added by Decreto 11-2006, prohibit circumventing an effective technological measure that controls access to a protected work and manufacturing or trafficking in circumvention devices or services, subject to enumerated lawful exceptions.
When LexLint raises it
crawls_webtrains_models
Read the law
Decreto N° 33-98
Ley de Derecho de Autor y Derechos Conexos, official Spanish text as reproduced by WIPO Lex (reformado por el Decreto N° 11-2006)