For decades, South Africa has strived to align with international standards, and recently, the creative industry has experienced a surge in global interest and collaborations. While updating our policies is essential to stay current, could the new Copyright Amendment Bill potentially overshadow this vibrant growth?
In an era of swift technological advancement, international social engagement and business opportunity, the amendment was undoubtedly overdue.
According to the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, the recently amended Copyright Bill invited corporate and public feedback, during which twelve organisations presented their submitted written responses.
The amended Bill includes a ‘fair use’ provision designed to facilitate increased access to knowledge and foster creativity, innovation, and invention. This clause has been implemented in over 10 countries and received positive outcomes, however critics argue that due to its ambiguity the ‘fair use’ principle, despite its apparent benefits, could potentially harm South Africa’s creative community and propel them into costly litigation to secure compensation for their copyrights.
Among the organisations, Netflix representatives expressed concerns about the negative effect the Bills (Copyright Amendment Bill & Performers Protection Amendment Bill) would have on the Audio-Visual industry, also stating that Compliance would be impossible given the thousands of works and millions of users including the administrative costs for producers would be very significant and run into millions of Rands, reducing funds available to pay performers.
Netflix suggested a flexible framework was needed.
Following a range of reactions from organisations, a significant concern emerged regarding royalties, fair remuneration and the failure to acknowledge AI in the Copyright Amendment Act.
A response from two researchers into AI (Artificial Intelligence), stated that in light of the rapid development of AI technology, the legislation had to make it clear that copyright is only attached to human creativity resulting from a human author’s skill, effort, and creativity. Text, images, music, software, and audiovisual works could only be subject to copyright where there were human authors. They requested a clause establishing that AI works could never be copyrighted.
These concerns are vital for officials to address when reviewing the presentations and revising the amended Bill to ensure its success both locally and internationally.
