South Africa’s Parliamentary Monitoring Group has released a report on the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry’s June 5 copyright reform debate. The summary notes:
An area of major contention was whether the Copyright Act should be based on the ‘fair use’ or the ‘fair dealing’ principle. The Committee strongly favoured ‘the fair use’ principle but with exceptions to manage the openness of the system. The Department of Trade and Industry agreed that a hybrid model that would open up copyright was essential but attempted to persuade the Committee that it was better to base the Act on ‘fair dealing’ which was the older, more closed and restrictive system and to add exceptions to open up copyright matters. The Department had based its stance on the approach used in Singapore. One Member noted that countries that used ‘fair dealing’ had regressed; only those that used ‘fair use’ had advanced in technology. Another Member noted that one could not transpose something directly from one country to another. South Africa had to establish what it needed first and then ensure that those needs were achieved. After a lengthy discussion, it was determined that the Department had to undertake further research and make a presentation the following day.
