Both the Copyright Amendment Bill as well as the Perfomers’ Protection Bill have been referred back to the National Assembly by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The bills were on the precipice of being signed into law but Ramaphosa has expressed reservations as to the constitutionality of the legislation passed by Parliament.

One of the reservations of the Copyright Amendment Bill pertains to exceptions to the exclusive rights of authors. The provision could prevent the reproduction of an author’s work into braille or other formats for folks who may not be able to read.

“Proponents of the exception contend that without such exception, visually impaired persons will have limited access to copyright literary works, as such works cannot be transcribed to braille and other formats for people who are print-disabled,” the Presidency said in a statement.

But that is just one issue Ramaphosa has highlighted, there in fact, several issue throughout the Copyright Amendment Bill.

Many of these sections could see copyright owners earning less from their works than they had previously. This provision, the Presidency says, may not survive a constitutional challenge.

In addition, the Presidency is concerned that Section 12A which deals with incredibly important aspects such as fair use of copyright and performing copyrighted works weren’t subject to public comment before the final version of the bill was published.

“Other reservations cited by the President include copyright exceptions provide for in the Copyright Bill that may constitute arbitrary deprivation of property; may violate the right to freedom of trade, occupation and profession, and may be in conflict with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Treaty and the WIPO Performance and Phonograms Treaty, both of which South Africa subscribes to,” the Presidency added.

Reading this statement has us wondering how this bill was ever able to reach the President’s desk.

Hell, Ramaphosa even takes issue with the fact that both the Copyright Amendment Bill and Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill were both labelled as Section 75 bills. As it turns out, both of these bills should have been introduced as Section 76 bills as they deal directly with cultural matters and the trade in copyright.

Given how long it has taken the Copyright Amendment Bill to reach this point we have to wonder how much longer it will be before any amendments are made.

The National Assembly will have to reconsider both bills.

[Image – CC BY  2.0 Sam Teigen]