Analyzing the Copyright Amendment Bill
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The new Copyright Amendment Bill went for a vote in parliament t and it doesn’t seem like the president or members of parliament understand the repercussions of enforcing the new Bill.
The Bill seeks to, among other things, “align copyrights with the digital era and developments at a multilateral level. It also seeks to protect the rights of artist and creative writers” by awarding copyrights to individuals instead of institutions. A noble effort, but very misguided. Effectively, this bill undermines the copyright protection in South Africa and will trigger the collapse of the local publishing market.
For Example, a journalist or writer will now own their articles and the likes of Sunday Times or Juta will be cut out of the picture, so who will pay the journalist/author/musician? The Bill literally leaves artists with no way of getting paid, and at the mercy of corporations like Google (who have been heavily pushing for this bill to go through – free content for them, right?)
Lazarus Serobe, Managing Director of DALRO (Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation) explains
The Bill seeks to, among other things, “align copyrights with the digital era and developments at a multilateral level. It also seeks to protect the rights of artist and creative writers” by awarding copyrights to individuals instead of institutions. A noble effort, but very misguided. Effectively, this bill undermines the copyright protection in South Africa and will trigger the collapse of the local publishing market.
For Example, a journalist or writer will now own their articles and the likes of Sunday Times or Juta will be cut out of the picture, so who will pay the journalist/author/musician? The Bill literally leaves artists with no way of getting paid, and at the mercy of corporations like Google (who have been heavily pushing for this bill to go through – free content for them, right?)
Lazarus Serobe, Managing Director of DALRO (Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation) explains
