ADVICE on the COPYRIGHT AMENDMENT BILL, NO 13 OF 2017, REVISED AS AT 3 SEPTEMBER 2018 for the PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON TRADE AND INDUSTRY OF THE PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA by ANDRÉ MYBURGH B.Comm. LLB. (Stell) Attorney and Notary Public of the High Court of South Africa, Solicitor of England & Wales (non-practising) Fellow of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Lawyers 1 October 2018 Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................... 4 GLOSSARY ......................................................................................................................................... 11 ADVICE ............................................................................................................................................... 13 Introduction...................................................................................................................................... 13 1. Identifying the policy decisions that underly the Bill; identifying provisions of the Bill not supported by policy decisions .............................................................................................................. 15 2. Constitutionality – Concerns that the new copyright exceptions amount to expropriation of property ................................................................................................................................................ 34 3. Constitutionality – Retrospective effect of certain provisions relating to the unwaivable rights by authors to a royalty and the 25-year limit on assignments of copyright already made, and their compliance with the Bill of Rights ........................................................................................................ 46 4. Treaty compliance – ‘Fair use’, new copyright exceptions, coupled with contract override: compliance with Berne, TRIPs, WCT, WPPT and the Beijing VIP Treaty ............................................. 49 5. Treaty compliance – Unwaivable right of authors and performers to a royalty, coupled with contract override; distributions by collecting societies to foreign rightsholders: meeting compliance with Berne, TRIPs, WCT, WPPT and the Beijing AVP Treaty ............................................................... 66 6. Treaty compliance – Compulsory licences in Schedule 2 of the Bill: compliance with the Berne Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 72 7. Treaty compliance – Exception for persons with a disability: compliance with the Marrakesh VIP Treaty .............................................................................................................................................. 75 8. Treaty compliance – Bill meeting compliance with AGOA .......................................................... 77 9. Specific provisions – Introductory and interpretational provisions as to the applicability of copyright ............................................................................................................................................... 79 10. Specific provisions – Introduction of the exclusive rights of ‘communication to the public’ and ‘making available’ .......................................................................................................................... 80 11. Specific provisions – Unwaivable right by authors of literary, musical and artistic works and the unwaivable right of performers in cinematograph films to a royalty .......................................... 82 12. Specific provisions – First ownership of copyright vesting in persons other than the author in the case of a work made for the State, an international organisation, a national organisation and in the case of a work made pursuant to it being commissioned by a third party .............................. 84 13. Specific provisions – 25-year limit on assignments of copyright ............................................ 86 14. Specific provisions – Specific requirements for contracts relating to copyright (including licences), Ministerial regulation of contractual terms and blanket contract override ...................... 87 15. Specific provisions – Definition of “audiovisual works” and related provisions .................... 89 16. Specific provisions – Resale royalty right ................................................................................. 90 17. Specific provisions – Copyright exceptions generally, namely instances where exclusive acts for the copyright owner may be undertaken by third parties without permission of or remuneration to the copyright owner: Introduction of ‘fair use’, general exceptions applying to all copyright works, exceptions in relation to computer programmes, exceptions for educational Page 2 of 125 institutions, exceptions for libraries, museums, archives and galleries, read with the blanket contract override provision .................................................................................................................. 92 18. Specific provisions – Copyright exceptions for digital uses: Exception for transient or incidental copies as part of a technological process, format shifting ................................................. 97 19. Specific provisions – Exception for persons with a disability .................................................. 98 20. Specific provisions – ‘Exhaustion’ of rights, permitting parallel importation and reducing the scope of secondary infringement by certain forms of distribution .................................................... 99 21. Specific provisions – ‘Panorama’ exception .......................................................................... 100 22. Specific provisions – Orphan works ....................................................................................... 101 23. Specific provisions – Moral rights .......................................................................................... 103 24. Specific provisions – Compulsory licences for reproducing works unavailable in South Africa and translation of works into South African indigenous languages ................................................. 104 25. Specific provisions – Protection of technological protection measures (TPMs) and copyright management information (CMI) ........................................................................................................ 105 26. Specific provisions – Regulation of collecting societies ........................................................ 106 27. Specific provisions – New Tribunal ........................................................................................ 107 28. Offences and penalties ........................................................................................................... 108 29. Transitional provisions ........................................................................................................... 109 30. Record and implications of the development of the Bill - What can be done? .................. 110 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................. 122 APPENDIX I: Curriculum Vitae, André Myburgh, presented to the Portfolio Committee December 2017 ....................................................................................................................................... APPENDIX 2: Terms of Reference given by the Portfolio Committee to the Technical Panel of Experts in relation to the expert advice sought ................................................................................. APPENDIX 3: Version of the Copyright Amendment Bill, no 13 of 2017, revised up to 3 September 2018, the subject of this advice ....................................................................................... APPENDIX 4: Correspondence with the Portfolio Committee, 8 December 2017 To 18 September 2018 ...................................................................................................................................... APPENDIX 5: Events and Timeline in the development of the Copyright Amendment Bill, No 13 of 2017 ................................................................................................................................................ APPENDIX 6: Socio-Economic Impact Assessment System (SEIAS) Final Impact Assessment Template (Phase 2) Copyright Amendment Bill ................................................................................. Page 3 of 125 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The legal issues raised by the Bill and by the process it took to get to this point, are substantial and material, whether from the perspective of compliance with the Constitution, South Africa’s meeting of its obligations under the international treaties to which it is a party, and the conceptualisation of its provisions arising from the policy considerations that underly it. This advice shows that the Bill has material flaws in all these respects, very few of which can be corrected by mere changes in the wording of the clauses of the Bill. It has been necessary to consider, not only the Explanatory Memorandum of the Bill, as directed by the Instructions, but also the proceedings of the Portfolio Committee, the SEIAS Report for the Original Bill, and the 2013 Draft National Policy and the comments on it, as well as the CRC Report