The Copyright Amendment Bill has been stalled since December 2020 due to a number of constitutional reservations that were raised by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The President singled out some of the Bill’s provisions, such as guaranteeing remuneration to artists, and expanding exceptions for educational, research, disability and other public interest uses of copyright works.

On 10 May, on the eve of a Parliamentary meeting to review the President’s constitutional reservations regarding the Bill, a group of leading copyright and constitutional academic experts put together a joined opinion document and referred it back to Parliament. In the document, they addressed the President’s concerns, and outlined specific recommendations.

Part of the academic team who drafted and signed the opinion were Prof Klaus Beiter from the North-West University (NWU), Prof Sean Fiil-Flynn from the American University and University of Cape Town IP Unit, Prof Malebakeng Forere and Prof Jonathan Klaaren from the University of Witwatersrand, Prof Caroline Ncube and Prof Tobias Schonwetter from the University of Cape Town, Prof Enyinna Nwauche from the University of Fort Hare, Dr Andrew Rens from  Research ICT Africa, and Dr Sanya Samtani from the University of Oxford.

During the meeting, the academic team described their analysis and answered questions. This was followed by reflections from civil society supporters of the Bill, representing inter alia the Health Justice Initiative – which also addresses intellectual property barriers to Covid-19, ReCreate South Africa – a coalition of creators and users of the Bill, and the South African Democratic Teachers Union.

Their opinion has since been made available to the public.

Prof Beiter’s participation is yet another example of how our NWU experts share their expertise to benefit society.