The Creative Industry and South African Intellectual Property Law
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Caroline B. Ncube
Abstract
This paper seeks to provide a more nuanced view of the creative industry that goes beyond assertions of its contribution to economic growth, which, it is then further argued, requires stringent copyright protection to ensure development. It argues that a critical first step is to optimize an existing copyright framework by addressing its inherent entrepreneurial challenges to better enable authors to garner economic returns. These challenges are identified before the paper delineates the creative industries in South Africa and related policies. It then turns to the ongoing copyright policy formulation process before setting out current and proposed copyright legislative provisions. The paper contends that essential aspects regarding both the creative and commercial aspects must be tackled first. At the creative stage, authors’ inability to use a large range of source works because of the fear of copyright infringement claims can be addressed by elaborating exceptions and limitations. On the commercial front, entrepreneurial capacity building for authors and curbing unfair author, publisher and intermediary contracts is vital. The use of statutory devices such as the reversionary interest, to recover lost or diminished opportunities to obtain direct financial gain from copyright work, could also be considered. Enhancing the viability of collecting societies and ensuring that royalties are paid to authors would also be a critical intervention.
Acknowledgements
This work is based on the research supported in part by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa. Any opinion, finding and conclusion or recommendation expressed in this material is that of the author and the NRF does not accept any liability in this regard.
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© 2018 Law and Development Review
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Mapping Law and Development from African Perspectives: An Overview
- Legal Pluralism and Effective Governance for Development in Africa
- The African Union Agenda 2063 and the Imperative of Democratic Governance
- Unpacking Legal Pluralism in Commonwealth Africa – Towards Strengthening Methods for Rule of Law Programming for Development
- Demand for Law in the African Private Sector
- OHADA and the Making of Transnational Commercial Law in Africa
- Corruption in Public Procurement in Lesotho
- Law and Industrial Promotion
- Law and Development: Lessons from South Korea
- Has it Reinvented Iron Law? South Africa’s Social Industrialisation, not Iron Industrialisation
- Law–Finance–Growth Nexus in the Context of Africa
- Inclusive Industrialization: The Interplay Between Investment Incentives and SME Promotion Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Intellectual Property Rights for Development
- The Creative Industry and South African Intellectual Property Law
- Digital Rights Management System and Administration: A Wake-up Call for Nigeria!
- Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights in Nigerian Courts
- Poverty and Sustainable Development
- De-Growth and Sustainable Development: Rethinking Human Rights Law and Poverty Alleviation
- Macro Aid: Applying Microcredit’s Group Liability Principle to Foreign Aid
- Law as a Tool for Ensuring Contributions of Small-Scale Women Farmers to Food Security in Nigeria
- Law and Natural Resources
- The Protection and Promotion of a People’s Right to Mineral Resources in Africa: International and Municipal Perspectives
- Justifying Water Rights in Nigeria: Fiction or Achievable Panacea?
- Three Mining Charters and a Draft: How the Politics and Rhetoric of Development in the South African Mining Sector are Keeping Communities in Poverty
- Addressing Human Rights Concerns in the Extractive Resource Industry in Sub-Saharan Africa using the Lens of Article 46 (C) of the Malabo Protocol
- Wildlife Poaching and Rule of Law in Kenya
- Good Governance and Development in Botswana – The Democracy Conundrum
- Book Review
- Yong-Shik Lee: Reclaiming Development in the World Trading System
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Mapping Law and Development from African Perspectives: An Overview
- Legal Pluralism and Effective Governance for Development in Africa
- The African Union Agenda 2063 and the Imperative of Democratic Governance
- Unpacking Legal Pluralism in Commonwealth Africa – Towards Strengthening Methods for Rule of Law Programming for Development
- Demand for Law in the African Private Sector
- OHADA and the Making of Transnational Commercial Law in Africa
- Corruption in Public Procurement in Lesotho
- Law and Industrial Promotion
- Law and Development: Lessons from South Korea
- Has it Reinvented Iron Law? South Africa’s Social Industrialisation, not Iron Industrialisation
- Law–Finance–Growth Nexus in the Context of Africa
- Inclusive Industrialization: The Interplay Between Investment Incentives and SME Promotion Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Intellectual Property Rights for Development
- The Creative Industry and South African Intellectual Property Law
- Digital Rights Management System and Administration: A Wake-up Call for Nigeria!
- Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights in Nigerian Courts
- Poverty and Sustainable Development
- De-Growth and Sustainable Development: Rethinking Human Rights Law and Poverty Alleviation
- Macro Aid: Applying Microcredit’s Group Liability Principle to Foreign Aid
- Law as a Tool for Ensuring Contributions of Small-Scale Women Farmers to Food Security in Nigeria
- Law and Natural Resources
- The Protection and Promotion of a People’s Right to Mineral Resources in Africa: International and Municipal Perspectives
- Justifying Water Rights in Nigeria: Fiction or Achievable Panacea?
- Three Mining Charters and a Draft: How the Politics and Rhetoric of Development in the South African Mining Sector are Keeping Communities in Poverty
- Addressing Human Rights Concerns in the Extractive Resource Industry in Sub-Saharan Africa using the Lens of Article 46 (C) of the Malabo Protocol
- Wildlife Poaching and Rule of Law in Kenya
- Good Governance and Development in Botswana – The Democracy Conundrum
- Book Review
- Yong-Shik Lee: Reclaiming Development in the World Trading System
