Media could challenge Copyright Amendment Bill in court
A group of media companies, content producers and creatives say they will head to court if the Copyright Amendment Bill is signed into law in its current form.
The Coalition for Effective Copyright in South Africa says it has petitioned President Cyril Ramaphosa to refer the bill back to the National Assembly to be reconsidered.
The coalition believes the bill will see local content producers losing out on royalties due to 'fair use' clauses, with large international tech companies the end winners.
"Those are the guys that stand to benefit, not authors or musicians. We really think this bill is not going to pass constitutional muster. If it does get signed by the president, we do not have a choice but to challenge it in court," said the coalition's Collen Dlamini.
Dlamini feels the educational publishing sector, for example, will lose out.
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"The whole value chain will be affected and then you will see all these jobs being lost in the publishing sector as well as authors who rely on this."
"Our education will deteriorate and we will rely on foreign imports, as opposed to having local authors writing our educational material," he said.
Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry says the bill
is intended to balance the rights of copyright owners with access to the
public.
