WHILE the intentions of the Copyright Amendment Bill are noble, they will have a hugely negative impact on the local educational publishing sector including publishers and authors.
This is according to Ebrahim Matthews, MD of Pearson South Africa, who warns that the fair use elements of the Bill will provide permission for anyone to copy large portions of educational publications.
This means that not only will organisations such as Pearson be placed on the back foot, but it will also deprive authors of earning a living.
The Bill has already passed through the National Assembly and there is pressure to conclude the parliamentary process in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) before the end of the current term, which would see the legislation signed off before the upcoming elections in May.
Even though the Bill is well-meant in terms of the protection of authors and performers, Matthews said it is considered overreaching in legislating broad copyright exceptions that will have a devastating effect on the South African publishing industry and will negatively affect the very audience it is intended to protect.
A PwC study, commissioned by the industry, has determined that the impact of the “fair use” provision and the education exception could see:
- a possible 33% decrease in sales, equivalent to R2.1-billion on baseline sales and an associated reduction in VAT and corporate tax;
- a decrease in the relative share of exports of local titles;
- an increase in the share of imports of foreign titles; and
- a weighted decline in employment of 30%, or the equivalent of 1 250 jobs.
“The effect of the Copyright Amendment Bill will not only be to inhibit educational publishers from being able to operate effectively in South Africa, it will also discourage the production of local educational content forcing us to import educational content from abroad.”
Matthews said the ‘expanded fair use’ clause was interesting at best, but more aptly described as a naïve destruction of the balance of interests that copyright gives authors and publishers and the audience for copyright works.
“This will not only impact authors, who earn a living through producing educational material, it will impact publishers who play a huge role in developing such authors. The Bill will also have the unintended effect of setting back the agenda to decolonialise local education.”