Copyright Reform in South Africa: Two Joint Academic Opinions on the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B 2017]
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2022/v25i0a13880Keywords:
Copyright Amendment Bill, constitutionality, President's referral back to Parliament, copyright reform, intellectual property and human rightsAbstract
South Africa is in the process of reforming its copyright law, attempting to update and align it with constitutional rights and existing and prospective international treaty obligations. With the adoption of the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B-2017] by both Houses of Parliament in March 2019, the apartheid-era Copyright Act of 1978 had almost successfully been amended, when the President of the Republic withheld his assent to the Bill referring it back to Parliament citing reservations about its constitutionality. Following calls for public comment by the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry on the President's reservations, a coalition of copyright and constitutional law experts, convinced of the constitutionality of the Bill, submitted two legal opinions to the Committee. The two opinions presented in this contribution underline the importance of copyright reform, as envisaged in the Bill, to bringing South African copyright law into the digital age and realising several constitutional rights including the rights to education, cultural participation, language, freedom of expression, and access to knowledge of everyone, without discrimination.
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References
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Albania
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Australia
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Botswana
Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act 8 of 2000 (Chapter 68:02)
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Canada
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China
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Dominican Republic
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France
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India
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Singapore
Copyright Act, 2021
South Africa
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996
Copyright Act 98 of 1978
Performers' Protection Act 11 of 1967
Patents Act 57 of 1978
Competition Act 89 of 1998
Sudan
Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (Protection) and Literal and Artistic Works Act, 2013
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Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886)
Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Harmonisation of Certain Aspects of Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society (2001)
Directive 2009/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Legal Protection of Computer Programs (2009)
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Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled (2013)
World Intellectual Property Organisation Copyright Treaty (1996)
World Intellectual Property Organisation Performances and Phonograms Treaty (1996)
World Trade Organisation Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (1994)
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Copyright (c) 2022 Klaus D Beiter, Sean M Flynn, Malebakeng Forere, Jonathan Klaaren, Caroline Ncube, Enyinna Nwauche, Andrew Rens, Sanya Samtani, Tobias Schonwetter
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