The Copyright Amendment Bill will improve publishing, not destroy it
Our Copyright Act has not been updated since the 1970s — it was passed before the VCR was invented
There has been a recent uptick in criticism of the Copyright Amendment Bill coming out of publishing companies and collective management organisations (CMOs), such as the piece by Mpuka Radinku, Copyright Amendment Bill puts the publishing sector, and jobs, at risk. CMOs, such as the SA Music Rights Organisation (Samro) and the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (Dalro), are entities that collect copyright royalties but are regularly criticised for not paying creators. The reason CMOs and publishers are up in arms about the bill is because President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address promised to regulate them through necessary provisions that have been lacking in our law for decades. The purpose of the bill is to improve access to copyright for both creators and the general public who rely on the copyright system for education, innovation and creation. It provides a balance that has been missing for the past 41 years from the SA copyright regime. Creators...
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