GuatemalaLey 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
In force since .
A database right rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Access restriction, Licensing
- Audit expectation
- none
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.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 4.1Approaches for mapping AI technology and legal risks of its components – including the use of third-party data or software – are in place, followed, and documented, as are risks of infringement of a third party’s intellectual property or other rights.
- NIST AI 600-1
- GAI-RISK-09Information Security
- GAI-RISK-12Value Chain and Component Integration
- OWASP LLM Top 10
- LLM03:2026Excessive Agency
- OWASP Agentic Top 10
- ASI03Identity and Privilege Abuse
- MIT mitigations Draft
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-PREV-018Agent Authority Least Privilege Framework
- AIR-PREV-023Agentic System Credential Protection Framework
- ETSI EN 304 223
- 5.1.2-6Access the AI system gets to other systems and data sources is minimal and risk assessed.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.
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
- Minimum
- 50,000
- Currency
- GTQ
- Fixed cap
- 750,000
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Articles 16 and 35 protect original compilations and databases as collections of works, and articles 133 quinquies and 133 sexties bar circumventing technological measures and trafficking in circumvention devices. The cited provisions impose no duty to create, keep, produce or review a log or record, and state no territorial clause.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
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
When your app profile says your app crawls the web or trains models.
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