Copyright.- The author, according to Decision 351, is the person whose name, pseudonym, or other identifying sign appears on the work. That person has the right to keep the work unpublished or to disseminate it, to claim the authorship of the work at any time, and to oppose any distortion, mutilation or change that may jeopardize the integrity of the work or the author's reputation (moral right). The author also has the exclusive right to carry out, authorize, and prohibit the reproduction, marketing, translation, or arrangement of the work, or any other change in it (property right).

The rights established in this Decision shall be protected for no less than the author's lifetime plus a period of 50 years after his or her death. If a juridical person holds those rights, their duration shall be no less than 50 years as of the dissemination or publication of the work.

If any of the established rights are violated, the competent national authority is empowered to order the immediate cessation of the illegal activity and the seizure, embargo, confiscation, or preventive attachment of the copies produced illicitly or of the devices or means used to commit the violation.

Related rights.- The related rights, which are the rights of persons participating in the dissemination of literary and artistic works, rather than their creation, were also established and are protected for a period of no less than fifty years by Decision 351.

That protection accordingly extends to the artists that interpret or execute the works (reciters, singers, announcers, actors, dancers, musicians, narrators); sound-effect producers (natural persons that provide for the representation or execution of sound-effects); and broadcasting companies (firms that broadcast public radio or television programs).