Draft Amendments to Copyright Act could give some creators a shock, Op-Ed Pg9 Cape Times 18 August 2015 http://www.pressreader.com/topics/417326
On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 12:30 AM, Douglas Scott douglas.i.scott@gmail.com wrote:
Hello everyone,
As many of you no doubt know the Copy Right Act 1978 section 15 (3) < https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_panorama#South_Africa
has been a bone of some contention for the South Africa Wikipedia community for a long time now as it has effectively meant that we here in South Africa are denied Freedom of Panorama https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_panorama.
Last week I was fortunate enough to have attended an event organised by Dr Tobias Schonwetter from UCT (and from Creative Commons South Africa) to discuss a suggested redrafting of the act. I am happy to say that I feel I was able to make a good case to the relevant authorities from the Department of Trade and Industry as well as others present for the need to revise the act to allow for Freedom of Panorama. I feel they were very sympathetic to our concerns about the need and desirability of Freedom of Panorama in South Africa.
Now comes the hard part. We need to work on a suggested revision of Section 15 (3) (or Section 15 generally) to allow for Freedom of Panorama and we need to do it quickly as the deadline for submissions to change the act is the 27th of August 2015.
My suggestion is to use the Spanish or German Freedom of Panorama acts as guidelines for us which basically state that people are free to take pictures or otherwise reproduce works that are permanently found outside on public ways, streets or places (e.g. squares, plazas) and to distribute and publicly communicate such copies.
Or as the Spanish act says: "Works permanently located in parks, streets, squares or other public places may be freely reproduced, distributed and communicated by means of paintings, drawings, photographs and audiovisual processes." and goes on to state that this "may not be so interpreted that they could be applied in a manner capable of unreasonably prejudicing the legitimate interests of the author or adversely affecting the normal exploitation of the works to which they refer."
I want to notify the community of this opportunity for us to amended the act as well as the progress the Chapter (Wikimedia South Africa) has made in possibly getting Freedom of Panorama established in South Africa.
I also wanted to let you know that should you have any comments of your own on the amendment of the Copy Right act of 1978 then please have a look at the link here < http://saha.org.za/news/2015/August/call_for_comment_copyright_amendment_bil...
for more information as well as the contact details of the contact person at the DTI.
Thanks and best regards,
Douglas.
-- Douglas Ian Scott 司道格 Skype: douglas0scott South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727 _______________________________________________ WikimediaZA mailing list WikimediaZA@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza