South African Copyright Academics Weigh in on Copyright Amendment Bill
On the eve of a Parliamentary meeting to review the President’s Constitutional reservations, a group of leading copyright and constitutional academics have identified technical changes to meet all of the President’s concerns.
The South African Copyright Amendment Bill has been stalled since the President sent it back to Parliament to consider revisions in light of reservations about its constitutionality. The President singled out the Bill’s provisions to guarantee remuneration to artists and to expand exceptions for educational, research, disability, and other public interest uses of copyright works. On 11 May 2021, there was a meeting of the National Assembly’s Trade & Industry Committee to explore a way forward in dealing with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s reservations. On 10 May, a group of legal experts discussed an opinion outlining specific recommendations to respond to the President’s reservations. Members of the academic team that signed the opinion were available to describe their analysis and answer questions. This was followed by reflections from civil society supporters of the Bill, representing inter alia the Health Justice Initiative, which also addresses IP barriers to COVID, ReCreate South Africa, a coalition of creators and users for the CAB, and the South African Democratic Teachers Union.
The opinion is now also made accessible to members of the public and can be found here: CAB Academic Opinion – 10 May 2021
The academics that drafted and signed the opinion are the following (in alphabetical order):
- Klaus D. Beiter: North-West University
- Sean M. Fiil-Flynn: American University and University of Cape Town IP Unit
- Malebakeng Forere: University of Witwatersrand
- Jonathan Klaaren: University of Witwatersrand
- Caroline Ncube: University of Cape Town
- Enyinna Nwauche: University of Fort Hare
- Andrew Rens: Research ICT Africa
- Sanya Samtani: University of Oxford
- Tobias Schonwetter: University of Cape Town