Peter Johan Lor

In a previous post I wrote about South Africa’s seemingly never-ending struggle to enact new legislation to update its 1978 vintage copyright law. The Copyright Amendment Bill, Bill 2023-01-05, which has been in the making for the best part of a decade, is intended to update the South African copyright regime by providing explicitly for limitations and exceptions that  form an accepted part of copyright law in many developed countries (Nicholson 2022b). By incorporating these exceptions and limitations, the Bill seeks to remove obstacles that impede access to information for students, researchers, and content creators. These obstacles have so far prevented South Africa’s ratification of the 2013 Marrakesh Treaty to enable cross-border exchange of accessible formats for the visually handicapped. The Bill will also remove provisions that inhibit access to orphan works. It will allow librarians legally to copy rare and fragile materials for preservation purposes (Nicholson 2022a).

A typical university library copying and scanning facility. Image: Image: Kings Western University, Canada, https://www.kings.uwo.ca/library/services-spaces/print-copy-scan/

The revised Bill was passed by the National Assembly on 1 September 2022, by 163 votes (including those of the governing African National Congress) to 45. The 45 opposing votes came from five parties, including the Democratic Alliance (DA), which is the official opposition, and the third largest party in Parliament, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). (Nicholson 2022a). At first sight this is puzzling.  Why did these two, which are diametrically opposed ideologically speaking, both oppose the bill? Continue reading →