Universities in South Africa pay more than 10 times as much for course-pack licences as their university presses gain in licensing revenue from course packs. If the Bill were passed, and assuming that all course-pack licensing ceased — which we do not agree the Bill requires — then universities would have millions of extra rands they could reinvest in scholarly publishing and access. This would benefit, not harm, universities and students.
By Ahmed Bawa, Mail & Guardian, 13 December 2019
Hollywood hates fair use. Even though Hollywood frequently relies on fair use, it seems to go out of its way to fight against fair use being used anywhere else. The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) (which is a mega trade group of intellectual property maximalist trade groups, including the MPAA, the RIAA, ESA, IFTA and AAP) has freaked out any time any other country in the world has sought to have American-style fair use. Over a decade ago IIPA flipped out when Israel's fair use rules matched the US's. The group and other surrogates have also fought American-style fair use in the UK and Australia after both of those countries explored implementing American-style fair use.
By Mike Masnick, Tech Dirt, 4 November 2019
New copyright legislation will be the first government implementation of policy for the fourth industrial revolution in SA.
By Andrew Rens, Business Day, 15 October 2019
Calls for the rights of actors to be respected shift to the Copyright and Performers Protection Amendment Bills awaiting presidential signature. Amid suggestions that the bills be delinked, Host Aldrin Sampear asks actress Nambitha Mpulwana for response. She explains why bills are coupled and hands over to SAGA's Jack Devnarain.
With Aldrin Sampear Power Talk, PowerFM, 15 October 2019
The Copyright Amendment Bill gives those with disabilities greater access to copyrighted material while supporting education and creators. But it is yet to be signed into law and not everyone is behind it.
By Linda Daniels, New Frame, 14 October 2019
On Tuesday the country exploded in uproar as one of South Africa’s most successful actors, Vatiswa Ndara, published a letter detailing the exploitation of herself and other actors in South Africa. Unfortunate threats of legal action in response did little to address the injustices detailed in Vatiswa’s exposé.
By Adrian Galley, The Daily Maverick, 11 October 2019
South Africa’s current copyright law was enacted 41 years ago. The Copyright Act No. 98 of 1978 had no provisions for people with disabilities – and that hasn’t changed in more than four decades.
This means that every time a person who is blind, deaf, partially-sighted, dyslexic, or paralysed needs to access any information, the content has to be converted into an accessible format before they can read and understand it.
By Denise Nicholson, The Conversation, 15 September 2019
Aphiwe Nomandla is a second year computer science student at the University of the Western Cape. To date, the cost of prescribed textbooks for his course ranged from R799 to R3,985. He said most students could not afford to buy the required textbooks.
“Well, the textbooks have different editions. So what most students do is get an older version like three versions older. It has the same content still. And others just go to pirate websites and download them there.”
The texts Nomandla and his fellow students need may become much more accessible when the Copyright Amendment Bill becomes law.
By Linda Daniels, GroundUp, 30 August 2019
If the project of decolonising education aims to shatter the barriers that keep formal learning within the province of the elite, in terms of both curriculums and spaces, then expanding access to education (and educational materials) is a crucial piece of the puzzle. The Copyright Amendment Bill of 2017 is a move towards enabling a majority of South Africans to participate in the previously inaccessible community of scholarship. In amending the apartheid-era Copyright Act of 1978 to introduce provisions that enable access to educational materials it contributes to the democratisation of knowledge and the fulfilment of the Bill of Rights.
By Sanya Samtani, Mail & Guardian, 19 August 2019
“Over the past few years, there has been an outcry from the South African creative community, over the lack of a strong legal framework that oversees and moderates the allocation of creatives’ (ranging from actors, filmmakers, writers, photographers to fine artists, activists and academia among others) royalties for the work they have undertaken; both locally and abroad.”
By Jack Devnarain, Startup Africa, July/August Edition 2019
“The South African government is planning to update its four-decade-old copyright legislation, but what that means for filmmakers was up for debate during a contentious and often heated session at the Durban FilmMart this week.”
By Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 20 July 2019
“Even if SA were listed, the likelihood of being sanctioned by the US for a copyright law policy dispute is very low.”
By Nontando Tusi, Business Day, 15 July 2019
“At the heart of this row is the new South African Copyright Amendment Bill, currently waiting for presidential signature and especially, among others, the provisions for the introduction of fair use into the South African creative industries, a topic that has been the subject of many angry and agitated dialogues (and monologues, for that matter).”
By Graysouth, 02 July 2019
The reform of copyright law in South Africa, particularly for the library and educational sectors, has been a long and bumpy road since 1998. Our copyright law is 41 years old – and broken! The exceptions for education, research, and libraries and archives have not been amended since 1978. The Act has no provisions for people with disabilities, nor provisions for galleries and museums. Being so old, it obviously does not address the digital world. “Fair dealing” in Section 12 of the Act is outdated, limited and not ‘future-proof’.
By Denise Nicholson, Info Justice, 07 June 2019
A broad coalition of creators and access to knowledge advocates have petitioned the President of South Africa to urgently sign the Copyright Amendment Bill before him. The petition (https://www.re-createza.org/) is endorsed by organizations representing over half a million South African creators, teachers, people with disabilities and others who rely on copyright access and protection. It calls for the President to sign the Bill “without delay,” including to enact into copyright law “a transformative vision for a more equal and just society.” The petition is the latest step in a decades long campaign to enact development- focused copyright reform that is sensitive to South Africa’s particular social and economic context.
By William New, Info Justice, 30 April 2019
Freedom of Panorama is the right to take photos of public works of art and share them with others, for example placing the photos on the Internet. Examples of this are the public facing façades of buildings, monuments such as statues, or arguably even election posters that are tied to street poles advocating for political parties in the upcoming election. All of which are located in public spaces such as on the street or in parks and walkways.
The current statute does not explicitly allow for this. Worse than that, it is written in such a way that makes it possible for the owners of public works to sue people photographing them and sharing them over the Internet.
By Douglas Scott, Ground Up, 25 April 2019
[I]f you or someone you know has taken a photograph of a recently built monument, such as the statue of Nelson Mandela in Sandton, and shared that photograph with people on Twitter or Facebook (for example) then, according to a strict interpretation of current copyright law, the owner of that statue could sue you.
This opens up possibilities for private censorship in addition to criminalising large numbers of law-abiding citizens for doing something people reasonably believe is both otherwise legal and normal.
For Wikipedia this is especially problematic. Wikipedia policy takes the strictest possible interpretation of copyright law to guide our use of adding content.
By Douglas Scott, Business Day, 24 April 2019
Visually impaired people in South Africa are being deprived access to millions of publications due to delays in approving the Copyright Amendment Bill, rights group Blind SA has said.
Data shows that blind people have access to only about five percent of all publications globally, and to alleviate this the Marrakesh Treaty was adopted in 2013 to facilitate access to published works by the visually impaired.
Nearly six years later, over 60 countries have ratified the treaty including nine African countries, but South Africa is not among them, noted Christo de Klerk, chairman of the Braille committee at Blind SA.
"Our government’s position on this matter is that the Copyright Amendment Bill first has to be signed before the Marrakesh Treaty can be ratified," De Klerk said in a statement.
"Unfortunately, this has been delayed for years because of a continuous bickering about the bill," he added.
By Ana Reporter, Independent Online, 23 April 2019
Davies and arts & culture minister Nathi Mthethwa recently met various industry stakeholders to hear their concerns about the Copyright Amendment Bill as well as the Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill. Parliament recently approved the bills, which are now awaiting President Cyril Ramaphosa’s signature before becoming law.
Davies said the bill was not intended to cause harm. On concerns of the fair use clause in the bill, Davies said there are safeguards meant to ensure that the intended use is in fact fair. He said there are also “technological protection measures” to prevent unauthorised access or use of copyright works. Content that is protected by these measures includes digital music, movies, games and software, said Davies, adding that the Copyright Tribunal will also disputes that may arise.
By Bekezela Phakath, Business Day, 22 April 2019
The bill introduces several overdue fixes specifically for data, application programming interfaces (APIs), interoperability and anti-circumvention. But like any other law, it cannot predict unimagined technologies. Instead, copyright needs to be flexible to adapt to technological change.
The bill introduces flexibility into SA law through a hybrid fair-use clause. Critics of fair use say they prefer highly specific, detailed exceptions. Detailed exceptions are important, but they can only ever be backward-looking, dealing with current uses of current technologies. Only a general exception clause is future orientated. A general exception clause allows courts to balance innovative uses against the exclusivity given to copyright holders, and so enable continuous adaption.
By Andrew Rens, Business Day, 04 April 2019
Wikimedia ZA president Douglas Scott said the current law has contributed to the country falling behind on technology.
“Memes are not allowed under the Fair Dealing law. Also, the sharing of pictures of public monuments is most probably illegal, it’s just that it has not been tested in court yet. Wikipedia doesn't accept photos of newly-built monuments because of the current act, only pictures of colonial-era monuments, such as the Rhodes statue, because its copyright licence has expired,” said Scott.
By Zodidi Dano, Cape Argus, 18 March 2019