This seminar took
place at World of Yamaha in Sandton. The venue, an auditorium on the premises,
was packed to capacity with over 300 participants, and proved to be an ideal and
well thought out choice to host the event, not only because of the huge turnout
but also the quality of sound during the panel discussions as well as the
entertainment in between.
Breakfast was served
in the foyer just before the seminar kicked off, and consisted of a tasty
variety of sandwiches, cold meat, salmon, cheese, fruit and even muesli with
yoghurt!
To kick off the
discussions for the day, a music video featuring various South African artists
singing “Vikela Mina”, which translates to “protect me”, resounded at the venue. Vikila Mina, inspired by President Cyril
Ramaphosa’s use of Hugh Masikela’s “Thuma Mina”, in his first State of the
Nation Address, is a cry to President Ramaphosa to protect the copyrights of
South African artists. The dominating views of the speakers and audience is
that the President should not sign the Copyright Amendment Bill because, according
to them, it is seriously flawed and will not protect, as the song title pleads. The
Bill, which has been approved by Parliament, has been submitted to President
Ramaphosa for his imminent approval, or rejection.
The seminar took the
shape of a discussion rather than a debate. The participants and panellists
consisted of a healthy mix of legal practitioners and creative minds from the
arts and entertainment industry, which resulted in discussions that were easy to
follow even for the layman.
Where the legal
experts shared on their experiences during the apparently rushed consultative
process with Government and the submissions they made, the creative minds from
the music and film industry gave practical examples of the challenges with the current
outdated current copyright legislation, and the impact the Bill would have on
their work, if adopted in its current state. The speakers in the third panel
focused on international perspectives, challenges and opportunities.
The “fair use”
doctrine appeared to be the most controversial aspect of the Bill, which if
approved, will introduce a US styled approach that the critics feel will be
counterproductive and have unintended consequences.
Though there was a
general consensus that there is a need for further consultations and proper
research and impact assessment before the Bill can be approved in the South
African context, there were a several participants who felt there had been
enough consultation and that Government had to come up with the amendments in
order to protect artists.
There was so much to
discuss that even a week’s seminar would not have been enough. These appear to
be the main takehome aspects:
- From a domestic perspective, the Bill in its current state is flawed and does not meet constitutional muster;
- The Bill fails to meet international standards in line with the Berne Convention and TRIPS, both of which South Africa is signatory to;
- The Bill has the potential to be best in class legislation especially for developing countries. Consequently, there is a need to look and consider in depth, other best practices and identify how to align with them;
- Missed opportunities which should have been addressed by the Bill include the so-called “value gap” which sees big digital providers benefiting at the expense of artist and authors, as well as the introduction of a private copy levy; and
- There is a need for further industry engagement with Government and to this end both legal stakeholders and industry must engage positively with Government.
For pics of the event, please check out the Sightings section here.
This post was brought to you by Afro-Elle.
