The Bill is exceptional in including what will be the world’s most well considered and detailed fair use right. The fair use and education rights are eminently reasonable for a country founded on the principle that all laws must promote the Bill of Rights, including rights to freedom of speech, to receive information, and to education.
South Africa and other countries are currently considering proposals to convert from a “fair dealing” to a “fair use” user rights system. Some critics of the change fill their arguments with hyperbole without describing the facts about what is really at stake. This note attempts to dispel some common myths about fair use by describing what fair use is, and what is not.
[Matthew Sag] Abstract: Individually and collectively, copyrighted works have the potential to generate information that goes far beyond what their individual authors expressed or intended. Various methods of computational and statistical analysis of text — usually referred to as text data mining (“TDM”) or just text mining — can unlock that information. However, because almost every use of TDM involves making copies of the text to be mined, the legality of that copying has become a fraught issue in copyright law in United States and around the world.
In conjunction with Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week 2019, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is releasing an infographic that illustrates how fair use helps people preserve software for teaching, learning, and research.
[Sean Flynn and Peter Jaszi] We commend the Copyright Amendment Bill’s proposed introduction of an innovative, forward-thinking and South Africa-specific open general exception for “fair use.” The enclosed comments make the following main points: Fair use promotes innovation and free expression - as shown in the experience of other countries who have adopted it; The fair use provision, and the other limitations and exceptions in the bill, are fully compliant with the international “three step test”; The fair use clause will increase predictability under the law by adding an explicit fairness test; Experience in other countries does not support allegations that adopting fair use will increase litigation, shift burdens of proof onto copyright holders, decimate thepublishing industry or authorize widespread piracy.
[Singapore Ministry of Law] The Ministry of Law (MinLaw) will amend the Copyright Act to update Singapore’s copyright regime to better support creators and the use and enjoyment of creative works in the digital age. The proposed changes include better recognising creators for their work, allowing easier access to copyrighted materials for educational purposes and supporting creators and users in the collective licensing of copyrighted works. These changes are outlined in the Singapore Copyright Review Report released by MinLaw and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) today.
[Sean Flynn and Mike Palmedo] Comments to USTR - re: Negotiating Objectives for a U.S.-European Union Trade Agreement: PIJIP is managing a multidisciplinary research project on the impact of copyright user rights in the digital environment. One issue that the United States and the European Union face in their upcoming negotiations is the degree to which they should seek to include language promoting copyright balance through limitations and exceptions in the agreement. We make this statement to share information from our research indicating that the promotion of balanced copyright systems promotes U.S. trade interests. ... We also provide the results of research on existing language in trade and international law that promote balance in copyright laws and include some analysis of how such provisions could better meet U.S. interests.
ReCreate South Africa welcomes the passing of the Copyright Amendment Bill by the National Assembly. This historic move provides clear guidelines and balance between the rights of creators and users. ReCreate South Africa notes the lengthy consultative approach adopted by Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry. We applaud the passage of a bill that serves creator interests by respecting three key rights to enable us to create the next generation of South African content for the world
It was a day of copyright drama in the South African Parliament on the anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s passing. The National Assembly was considering the Copyright Amendment Bill in the full chamber. ...When the votes were taken, parties representing an overwhelming majority of the MPs had endorsed the bill, but it came up 12 votes short of what was needed to pass it on to the Council of the Provinces (the second house). The battle for copyright reform in South Africa appeared lost until the new year. But hours later the drama continued. After passing a new performers protection bill, more MPs from the ANC were whipped to join the chamber and the Copyright Amendment Bill was passed on a second vote.
[Eve Gray and Desmond Oriakhogba] The publishing industry is making a mad dash to defeat South Africa’s adoption of a fair use rights in Parliament on Wednesday. Their latest effort includes an alarmist petition being circulated among authors. It is interesting to note that, while one of the most persistent and loud complaints in these protests has been that the drafting of the new legislation was badly handled, our perception, along with a number of experienced observers in the process, has been that the level of discussion and debate; the degree of participation and engagement of government representatives; and the consensus on the needs to be addressed, was of a higher standard and the debate much better informed than in previous such attempts at reform over the past decades. It should also be noted that, while it is true that international publishers might have much to lose in the new law, local publishers, authors and students have much to gain. It is time to lower the heat and concentrate on the facts and context of what is before Parliament.
[Sean Flynn, Peter Jaszi, and Michael Carroll] On Wednesday the South African National Assembly vote on the Copyright Amendment Bill, which includes a new “fair use” right. The publishing industry is marking the occasion by circulating an alarmist petition that the legislation will have a “direct and detrimental impact on all South African authors.” Learned professors at the University of Stellenbosch have taken to calling the bill “shambolic”, and “an abomination.” . It is certainly time for a little light to go with the heat.
[Pascale Chapdelaine] Professors Pascale Chapdelaine and Myra Tawfik, and nine other Canadian intellectual property scholars [1] recently co-signed a brief submitted to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology in the context of the Statutory Review of the Copyright Act. [2] Animated by guiding principles of the need to maintain a balanced, distinctly Canadian copyright system, and to steer clear of “copyright exceptionalism,” the brief contains several recommendations of amendments to the Act. Here are excerpts from the brief and a summary of its key elements....