The Right to Authorship
[Yamile Socolovsky] Education International’s decision to encourage discussion of an International Treaty concerning the exceptions and limitations to copyright for educational and research activities is both timely and necessary. The obstacles imposed on these activities by the excessively restrictive regulations in this area become remarkably difficult to overcome in the current context, because one aspect of the commercialisation of education and research involves the commercialisation of intellectual and artistic production, which represents a source of profit for an increasingly concentrated business sector.
New Copyright Law Will Benefit South Africans with Disabilities
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… Copyright permission has to be obtained before the works can be made accessible via Braille or other accessible formats. Rights-holders do not always respond timeously or at all, which means the students have to wait for their study material in accessible format. Sometimes it doesn’t come at all. They also have to pay high copyright fees for the conversions, which they do not always have in view of their limited budgets or resources.
Copyright Issues and Teachers’ Dilemma in Asia Pacific
[Robert Jeyakumar] … The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Asia-Pacific Regional Seminar was held in Singapore on the 28th to 30th April 2019. I took part in the event as a member of the EI delegation to express our teacher concerns on copyright issues. Among the objectives of this seminar was to gather views from teacher unions on copyright exceptions for education.
Time to Act: International Action Needed on Exceptions and Limitations to Copyright for Libraries
[International Federation of Library Associations)] After years of IFLA engagement at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), discussions have reached a key moment. In three regional seminars, many countries asked for international action – a key priority for IFLA. A global conference will take place in October 2019 to make decisions on the way forward.
The Decline of Online Piracy: How Markets – Not Enforcement – Drive Down Copyright Infringement
[João Quintais and Joost Poort] Abstract: This article… combines different sources and empirical methods, including consumer surveys among nearly 35.000 respondents and comparative legal research. Our main conclusion is that online piracy is declining. The key driver for this decline is the increasing availability of affordable legal content, rather than enforcement measures. Where the legal supply of copyright-protected content is affordable, convenient and diverse, consumers are willing to pay for it and abandon piracy.
Are Fair Use Provisions in the SA Copyright Amendment Bill Far Broader than in the US?
Opponents of the South African Copyright Amendment Bill claim that the fair use provisions in Section 12 of the Bill far exceed those of the U.S. They state that if the Bill is signed by the President, it will be the only country in the world with such extensive rights for users. They warn, as part of their ongoing media campaigns and at seminars, that this will be ‘extremely catastrophic’ for authors and publishers in South Africa, and that foreign investors will no longer invest in the creative industries in South Africa. This is an exaggeration and fear-mongering at its best.
Does the South African Copyright Bill Promote Plagiarism?
Concerns have been raised in the media by some opponents of the Copyright Amendment Bill that Section 12B(1)(a) will promote plagiarism. They have suggested that researchers’ works will not be cited, and that the important role that citations play in academic scholarship will be undermined. This viewpoint is myopic and incorrect.
Final WIPO Exceptions Seminar Endorses Exceptions, But Leaves Stakeholders Complaining
The last in a series of World Intellectual Property Organization regional seminars on copyright limitations and exceptions concluded with broad agreement that exceptions in Latin America are inadequate to cater to the needs of education and research in the digital world, including through the work of libraries, archives and museums, according to participants. But complaints continued from beneficiary communities that the discussion in the seminars was steered away from the topic of how international law could help remedy the problems identified.
Decolonising Copyright: Building Our Creative and Information Economy
[AfroChic] On the 7th of August 2019 RecreateSA convened a seminar in association with the South African Guild of Actors, the University of the Witwatersrand’s Library, Blind SA, the University of Cape Town’s IP Unit, the South African Democratic Teacher’s Union, Washington College of Law’s Programme on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and the University of the Witwatersrand’s Institute for Social and Economic Research. The seminar was entitled “Decolonising Copyright: Building our Creative and Information Economy” and took place in the Senate Room of the Solomon Mahlangu Building.
Decolonising Copyright, Building our Creative & Information Economy
Recreate ZA, in partnership with Wits Library, Wiser, UCT IP Unit and the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property will be hosting a series of panel discussions on the 7th and 8th of August, at Wits and UCT respectivel… At this event, a number of development scholars and experts, including Ruth Okediji, Adam Habib, Justice Zak Yacoob, Tshilidzi Marwala and many others will be engaging on how the signing and implementation Copyright Amendment Bill could positively affect the economy, and how it could lead to growth emanating from South Africa’s creative, research and education sectors, as well as reductions in costs for students and learning institutions.
