Appeal to Cyril on copyright bill

The Coalition for Effective Copyright has petitioned President Cyril Ramaphosa not to sign the Copyright Amendment Bill into law.

At a media briefing in Johannesburg on Tuesday‚ coalition spokesperson Collen Dlamini said if the bill was enacted it would amount to expropriation of local content without compensation.

“SA creatives will no longer be paid for the content they create,” Dlamini said.

“Our writers will stop writing. Our singers will stop singing and our artists will stop drawing.

“Big global tech companies with access to an abundance of cheap local content will be the winners.”

Dlamini said the bill would also fragment the rights in sound recordings‚ meaning substantial catalogues of recorded music would simply become unusable‚ ending the revenues they generated for composers‚ performers‚ songwriters‚ publishers and producers alike.

The coalition comprises writers‚ book and music publishers‚ film directors‚ producers‚ musicians‚ performing artists‚ film and television workers‚ content creators and business people, including representatives from a large number of industry heavyweights.

The Trade Union for Musicians of SA’s Gabi le Roux‚ a music industry veteran‚ said the bill was unconstitutional in its current form.

“We’re fighting the broad description of ‘fair use’.

“Anybody can just say ‘look‚ I’m going to infringe this copyright‚ and I’m just going to say it was fair use’.

“A poor musician has to go fight that in court‚” Le Roux said.