Reforming the Right to Remuneration in the South African Copyright Amendment Bill

One of the core goals of South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill is to provide a right to fair remuneration for all authors and performers. This objective was motivated by the experiences of numerous famous South African creators who, despite their success in the creative industry, died as paupers. The problem that the Bill seeks to address is that the distributors of copyrighted work are dominated by multinational monopolies that are able to exact enormous concessions in their contracts with South African creators. Among the tools to address this problem in the Bill is a new right to a “fair royalty” for authors and performers, which applies to existing as well as future contracts. This provision is among those sent back to Parliament by the President for violating the Constitution. The President and others specifically criticize the retroactive effect of the royalty right with respect to existing contracts. This Article analyzes the Bill’s royalty rights and its potential constitutional infirmities, considers how other jurisdictions, especially the European Union has implemented fair remuneration rights, and proposes modest amendments that can help the Bill achieve its compelling purposes without running afoul of constitutional guarantees

Protecting music copyright owners in Southern Africa: Need for Regulatory Convergence

Intellectual property, as an intangible form of property, is able to transcend borders and this is especially the case with music. To this end, the South African music is particularly consumed in Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zimbabwe and vice-versa because of shared languages in these countries. The question then becomes – to what extent are South African music copyright owners or holders protected beyond South African borders especially in the abovementioned countries. This research therefore seeks to compare copyright laws in South Africa and the countries mentioned above specifically focusing on the rights of copyright owners, limitations to such rights and remedies in cases of infringement. From the analysis of the laws in these countries, the research will then call for harmonisation of laws with the aim to protect copyright owners not only in South Africa but in Southern Africa under the auspices of Southern African Development Community (SADC)

Protecting music copyright owners in Southern Africa: Need for Regulatory Convergence

Intellectual property, as an intangible form of property, is able to transcend borders and this is especially the case with music. To this end, the South African music is particularly consumed in Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zimbabwe and vice-versa because of shared languages in these countries. The question then becomes – to what extent are South African music copyright owners or holders protected beyond South African borders especially in the abovementioned countries. This research therefore seeks to compare copyright laws in South Africa and the countries mentioned above specifically focusing on the rights of copyright owners, limitations to such rights and remedies in cases of infringement. From the analysis of the laws in these countries, the research will then call for harmonisation of laws with the aim to protect copyright owners not only in South Africa but in Southern Africa under the auspices of Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The Relationship of WTO Law and Regional Trade Agreements in Dispute Settlement: Project Finance, PPP Projects and PPP Frameworks.

Description based upon print version of record.1 online resource (298 p.

Move away from BITs framework: A need for multilateral investment treaty?

The objective of this paper is to critically evaluate the desirability of multilateral treaty that will take into account the needs of developed and developing countries alike as developed nations seek to protect their investment abroad while developing nations want to attract investment, be able to regulate and most importantly they want to limit access to international arbitration. In achieving this objective, the paper will give a snapshot of recent developments indicating a shift away from BITs framework, international investment arbitration and what was considered customary international law of investment. Following from these highlights, the paper will then consider the need of multilateral investment treaty against the current developments. Further, the paper will then discuss how such a multilateral treaty should look like in order to get a buy-in from both the developed and developing nations

The New Developments in International Investment Law: A need for Multilateral Investment Treaty?

This work contributes to the global discussion on the desirability of the multilateral investment treaty to ensure coherence in the way foreign investment is protected across the globe. The paper argues that whereas the international community is not ready yet to adopt multilateral rules on investment liberalisation, the time is ripe for multilateral rules on the standards of protection backed up by a multilateral court with a two-tier system. Most importantly, this contribution provides a template for the content of the standards of protection, having observed the new approaches to the traditional standards of protection typically enshrined in the bilateral investment treaties.   &nbsp

Reforming the Right to Remuneration in the South African Copyright Amendment Bill

One of the core goals of South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill is to provide a right to fair remuneration for all authors and performers. This objective was motivated by the experiences of numerous famous South African creators who, despite their success in the creative industry, died as paupers. The problem that the Bill seeks to address is that the distributors of copyrighted work are dominated by multinational monopolies that are able to exact enormous concessions in their contracts with South African creators. Among the tools to address this problem in the Bill is a new right to a “fair royalty” for authors and performers, which applies to existing as well as future contracts. This provision is among those sent back to Parliament by the President for violating the Constitution. The President and others specifically criticize the retroactive effect of the royalty right with respect to existing contracts. This Article analyzes the Bill’s royalty rights and its potential constitutional infirmities, considers how other jurisdictions, especially the European Union has implemented fair remuneration rights, and proposes modest amendments that can help the Bill achieve its compelling purposes without running afoul of constitutional guarantees

Copyright Reform in South Africa: Two Joint Academic Opinions on the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B 2017]

South Africa is in the process of reforming its copyright law, attempting to update and align it with constitutional rights and existing and prospective international treaty obligations. With the adoption of the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B-2017] by both Houses of Parliament in March 2019, the apartheid-era Copyright Act of 1978 had almost successfully been amended, when the President of the Republic withheld his assent to the Bill referring it back to Parliament citing reservations about its constitutionality. Following calls for public comment by the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry on the President's reservations, a coalition of copyright and constitutional law experts, convinced of the constitutionality of the Bill, submitted two legal opinions to the Committee. The two opinions presented in this contribution underline the importance of copyright reform, as envisaged in the Bill, to bringing South African copyright law into the digital age and realising several constitutional rights including the rights to education, cultural participation, language, freedom of expression, and access to knowledge of everyone, without discrimination