Category Limitations and Exceptions

Copyright Flexibility Opens the Door to Decisive AI Advantages

New copyright legislation will be the first government implementation of policy for the fourth industrial revolution in SA. The Copyright Amendment Bill of 2017 before the president for signature features copyright flexibilities needed for SA to benefit from the fourth industrial revolution. These will free SA entrepreneurs to develop innovative techniques of data analysis without holdup from copyright holders, to grow local data analysis capacity and allow innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things.

International IP Experts Debate Protecting Artificial Intelligence Research

A panel of leading international law experts addressed how international and domestic copyright law can adapt to the needs of researchers, libraries, technology entrepreneurs and their users at the American Branch of the International Law Association at Fordham Law School, New York, on Saturday October 12. The panel addressed International Intellectual Property Law in the Age of Smart Technology and Intelligent Machines. The focus of the discussion was on how the proliferation of new transformative technologies, such as smart devices, Big Data and artificial intelligence, pose new challenges for the effective development of international intellectual property law.

ReCreate Opinion on the Copyright Amendment Bill and the Constitution

The opinion was prepared by advocates Susannah Cowen SC, Jonathan Berger, and Mehluli Nxumalo. Counsel were requested to consider whether there is any impediment to the President signing and assenting to the Bill, in light of various objections that have been raised by third parties. Counsel conclude that the objections that have been raised do not constitute any impediment to the President signing and assenting to the Bill, and unless there are other valid constitutional reservations, he is under a constitutional duty to sign and assent to the bill within a reasonable time.

Article 17 Stakeholder Dialogue: We’ll Continue to Advocate for Safeguarding User Rights

[Paul Keller] Article 17(10) of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market directive requires the Commission to “organise stakeholder dialogues to discuss best practices for cooperation between online content-sharing service providers and rightholders”. Based on the outcome of these dialogues with “content-sharing service providers, rightholders, users’ organisations and other relevant stakeholders” the Commission is expected to “issue guidance on the application of Article 17” that is supposed to “balance fundamental rights and the use of exceptions and limitations” with the upload filtering obligations introduced by Article 17.

The Right to Authorship

[Yamile Socolovsky] Education International's decision to encourage discussion of an International Treaty concerning the exceptions and limitations to copyright for educational and research activities is both timely and necessary. The obstacles imposed on these activities by the excessively restrictive regulations in this area become remarkably difficult to overcome in the current context, because one aspect of the commercialisation of education and research involves the commercialisation of intellectual and artistic production, which represents a source of profit for an increasingly concentrated business sector.

Copyright as an Obstacle or an Enabler? A European Perspective on Text and Data Mining and Its Role in the Development of AI Creativity

[Eleonora Rosati] Abstract: Text and data mining (TDM) may be performed in a variety of fields and for different purposes. Among other things, TDM techniques may be used to ‘train’ Artificial Intelligence (AI), also for the purpose of AI-driven creativity. In this context, copyright restrictions might be in place, even if copies made of pre-existing content are only used internally and are instrument to the creation of something ‘new’. Recently, in the context of the Directive 2019/790 on copyright in the Digital Single Market, the EU legislature introduced two new mandatory exceptions for TDM.

Monitoring and Filtering: European Reform or Global Trend?

[Giancarlo Frosio and Sunimal Mendis] Abstract: ...Article 17 of the newly enacted EU Directive on the Digital Single Market has come under fire for the heightened level of liability it imposes on online services providers (OSPs) for copyright infringing content stored or transmitted by them. Based on an analysis of case-law from multiple jurisdictions and an overview of industry practice, this chapter seeks to locate the new European reform within a much wider global trend that aims to impose proactive monitoring and filtering obligations on OSPs.

New Copyright Law Will Benefit South Africans with Disabilities

South Africa’s current copyright law was enacted 41 years ago. The Copyright Act No. 98 of 1978 had no provisions for people with disabilities – and that hasn’t changed in more than four decades. This means that every time a person who is blind, deaf, partially-sighted, dyslexic, or paralysed needs to access any information, the content has to be converted into an accessible format before they can read and understand it... Copyright permission has to be obtained before the works can be made accessible via Braille or other accessible formats. Rights-holders do not always respond timeously or at all, which means the students have to wait for their study material in accessible format. Sometimes it doesn’t come at all. They also have to pay high copyright fees for the conversions, which they do not always have in view of their limited budgets or resources.

Digitisation, Copyright and the GLAM Sector: Constructing a Fit-For-Purpose Safe Harbour Regime

[Samuel Coad] Abstract: Copyright law does not currently align with the legitimate activities of galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs). The GLAM sector plays a central role in collecting and promoting access to cultural works. Increasingly, GLAM institutions are employing innovative digital technologies to expand access to culture and foster greater levels of cultural participation. Despite the utility underlying digitisation, copyright limits the use of digital technologies within the GLAM sphere.

Access to Information of Disabled People on the Web: A Dispute between Accessibility and Digital Rights Management

[Wariya Lamlert and Oranuch Sawetrattanasatian] Abstract: ... the regulations which are beneficial to the accessibility of disabled people are overruled by DRM. More specifically, the challenges posed by DRM include: (1) Negligence of disabled people's rights, (2) Conflict of accessibility, and (3) Ignorance of copyright-related exceptions. This study is a cross disciplinary study probing the issue of disabled people in both legal studies, through relevant legislation, and information studies, through the topic of information access on the Web.

Copyright Issues and Teachers’ Dilemma in Asia Pacific

[Robert Jeyakumar] ... The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Asia-Pacific Regional Seminar was held in Singapore on the 28th to 30th April 2019. I took part in the event as a member of the EI delegation to express our teacher concerns on copyright issues. Among the objectives of this seminar was to gather views from teacher unions on copyright exceptions for education.