Long walk to copyright reform #4: South Africa's Parliamentary Committee approves a revised Copyright Amendment Bill
Some progress has been made on the legislative front in terms of South Africa's journey to amend its copyright statute. On Friday last week (10 June 2022), South Africa's Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry adopted its report on the Copyright Amendment Bill (CAB) and the Performers' Protection Amendment Bill and approved both bills for second reading. This opens the way for the next step in the reform process: the Second Reading of the Bill where the Bill is debated and voted on at a sitting of the National Assembly. If a majority of the National Assembly votes in favour, the Bill is passed and will then be referred to the National Council of Provinces for consideration and depending on the outcome, it's on to the President for assent or otherwise [An explainer of how bills work in South Africa here].
Readers may recall that in 2020, South Africa's President returned the Copyright Amendment Bill to the National Assembly citing constitutional and other concerns. This resulted in the National Assembly re-opening calls for public submissions and comments on the Bill. Beyond the debate in the National Assembly, other stakeholders such as BlindSA took to the courts to find ways to get the amendments that are particularly pertinent to them going.
 |
| Image credit: slangit |
While detailed analysis on the copyright reform journey will follow shortly, this SpecialKat can say right away that there would be more to unpack with this revised bill. The National Assembly had initially restricted public submissions and comments to the President's reservations as stated in his letter returning the CAB to the parliament. But, by December 2021, Parliament called for public submissions and comments on new, substantive amendments to the CAB that go beyond the matters relating to the President's reservations. Another interesting fact: the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry's approval for the revised bill to be tabled for second reading was not unanimous. MPs from the minority parties - The Democratic Alliance and Freedom Front Plus - did not support the Bill.
More to follow on all of these...
Follow the long walk:
Long walk to copyright reform #4: South Africa's Parliamentary Committee approves a revised Copyright Amendment Bill
Reviewed by Chijioke Okorie
on
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
Rating:
Reviewed by Chijioke Okorie
on
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
Rating:
Follow the IPKat on LinkedIn 
![[Guest post] EUIPO Second Board of Appeal refers case to Grand Board of Appeal following earlier refusal to register a photograph of a man’s head/face as an EU trade mark](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUj9v-k3DYaSVMR4lsmKDLHVB5nIoINuvZNbH2TQCelrfaAE9qmGSAQs-plzQ7HnZ7Svk_gRdrIODp0Nat5vpWajduit3xkArNhK76AHhX770RIJ62thfCVI5fnvcXU-5zH4NkUSfPY9FjRMFiK7OKJ7m7YSo2FzhyPSoA8ZWCsxaOXb0bBCoPQA/s72-c/Picture%201.png)
![[Guest post] Benelux Office rules on opposition proceedings prepared by ChatGPT](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi29VY0rNNP1Hqyz8RgB47r4q7fhqQfYHxsEbX_RKmT4KU5Y_vg7vB6dsAW91CidjMfJ38klTvD4mMtZb3QmwFPAHaGF88BPttWSbfYvo7UUg7MpFRTNtEjThmG0QaX2qZFFHSnN71i3YQZSBFC0SL7PgkAlme-XH8cSNWRFbOAOuLr_LMOGcImLQ/s72-c/Screenshot%202024-12-04%20at%2020.45.58.png)
Posts
No comments:
All comments must be moderated by a member of the IPKat team before they appear on the blog. Comments will not be allowed if the contravene the IPKat policy that readers' comments should not be obscene or defamatory; they should not consist of ad hominem attacks on members of the blog team or other comment-posters and they should make a constructive contribution to the discussion of the post on which they purport to comment.
It is also the IPKat policy that comments should not be made completely anonymously, and users should use a consistent name or pseudonym (which should not itself be defamatory or obscene, or that of another real person), either in the "identity" field, or at the beginning of the comment. Current practice is to, however, allow a limited number of comments that contravene this policy, provided that the comment has a high degree of relevance and the comment chain does not become too difficult to follow.
Learn more here: http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/p/want-to-complain.html