Hon Chairperson, hon members and fellow South Africans, copyright law is a complex subject that requires a careful approach with valuable understanding. The Bill before us today, in principle, is much needed as it aims to modernise many of the clauses as set out in the Copyright Act of 1978. However, a fundamental factor of copyright protection is that it should not outweigh the right to freedom of expression, which is a basic characteristic of a democracy.
The Bill grapples with two approaches - fair use and fair dealing. Both are aimed to enhance creativity. Fair use provides a principles-based test to see if a use is permitted or not, while fair dealing specifies permissible uses in legislation.
Nonetheless, some of the flaws in the Bill include terminology that will only lead to great uncertainty. The ownership by the state of state-funded works is also problematic. This deprivation of a person's right to property could be viewed as unconstitutional while there are also other unconstitutional aspects of the Bill that allow the Minister of Communications to take on the role of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, Icasa, in prescribing local music content
for television and radio broadcasting - possibly opening such a function to political manipulation.
Furthermore, the Bill clearly does not consider the economic consequences on local copyright owners, publishers and innovation. Therefore, considering the negative effect this Bill could have on copyright law and the industries concerned, the DA cannot support this Bill. I thank you, Chairperson.