COPYRIGHT, PERFORMERS’ PROTECTION BILLS: MORE DETAILS ON PRESIDENT’S RESERVATIONS

COPYRIGHT, PERFORMERS’ PROTECTION BILLS: MORE DETAILS ON PRESIDENT’S RESERVATIONS

• 16 October 2024
• Presidency
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: On 17 October, Parliament published papers that included the President’s letter to the Constitutional Court. Dated 10 October 2024 (five days before the President announced his decision to approach the Court for a ruling), the letter appears to have been sent one day after non-profit organisation Section 27 launched its ‘urgent application against (the) President ... for failing to sign the Copyright Amendment Bill’. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s reservations about the constitutionality of the revised Copyright and Performers’ Protection Amendment Bills have been outlined in a broader statement. This follows an earlier press release announcing the President’s decision to approach the Constitutional Court for a ruling on both Bills, as SA Legal Academy has already reported.

Issued during a media briefing on the President’s upcoming programme and other matters of public interest, the latest statement refers to:

• the Copyright Amendment Bill’s clauses 5, 6 and 7, among other things inserting sections 6A, 7A and 8A into the principal statute:
  • possibly constituting the retrospective and arbitrary deprivation of property, in breach of section 25(1) of the Constitution, and
  • conferring ‘substantial discretionary powers on the Minister’, possibly constituting ‘an impermissible delegation of legislative authority’
• the Copyright Amendment Bill’s clause 15, inserting into the principal statute:
  • sections 12A and 12B (dealing with general exceptions from copyright protection)
  • section 12C (focusing on temporary reproduction and adaptation), and
  • section 12D (focusing on reproduction for educational and academic activities)
• the Copyright Amendment Bill’s clause 21, inserting into the principal statute:
  • section 19B (focusing on computer programme-related general exceptions), and
  • section 19C (focusing on general exceptions applicable to copyright protected work in libraries, archives, museums and galleries).

According to the statement, the President’s view is that – following the Bill’s remittal in 2020 – reservations expressed at the time about the constitutionality of the proposed new sections 6A, 7A, 8A, 12A to 12D, 19B and 19C for insertion into the Copyright Act, 1978, were not ‘fully accommodated by Parliament’. This has also affected clauses in the remitted and since revised Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill incorporating them.

No mention is made of Copyright Amendment Bill clauses intended to facilitate access by the blind and otherwise print disabled to copyright protected material for conversion into alternative formats.

• media statement
• Copyright Amendment Bill’s ‘F’ version (passed by Parliament in February 2024, now referred to the Constitutional Court)
• Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill’s ‘F’ version (passed by Parliament in February 2024, now referred to the Constitutional Court)
• SA Legal Academy report on the President’s decision, with all related documents

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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