New PIJIP Research Paper: Reforming the Right to Remuneration in the South African Copyright Amendment Bill, by Malebakeng Agnes Forere
May 27, 2020
PIJIP is pleased to announced the next Research paper in the PIJIP/TLS Working Paper Series. Reforming the Right to Remuneration in the South African Copyright Amendment Bill, is by Malebakeng Agnes Forere, Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Abstract: One of the core goals of South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill is to provide a right to fair remuneration for all authors and performers. This objective was motivated by the experiences of numerous famous South African creators who, despite their success in the creative industry, died as paupers. The problem that the Bill seeks to address is that the distributors of copyrighted work are dominated by multinational monopolies that are able to exact enormous concessions in their contracts with South African creators. Among the tools to address this problem in the Bill is a new right to a “fair royalty” for authors and performers, which applies to existing as well as future contracts. This provision is among those sent back to Parliament by the President for violating the Constitution. The President and others specifically criticize the retroactive effect of the royalty right with respect to existing contracts. This Article analyzes the Bill’s royalty rights and its potential constitutional infirmities, considers how other jurisdictions, especially the European Union has implemented fair remuneration rights, and proposes modest amendments that can help the Bill achieve its compelling purposes without running afoul of constitutional guarantees.
Citation: Forere, Malebakeng Agnes. Reforming the Right to Remuneration in the South African Copyright Amendment Bill. (2021) PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series no. 67.
Full paper: https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/research/67
About the Author
Malebakeng Agnes Forere is an associate professor of law at the School of Law of the University of the Witwatersrand. She specialises in Foreign Investment Law and Intellectual Property Law, particularly patents and copyright, which include the protection of indigenous knowledge. She has been very instrumental in the drafting of the Performers Protection Bill 2018, which is soon to become law. Together with the DTI, Professor Forere has participated in many discussions on the Copyright Bill 2018, which is awaiting presidential signature. Further, she has conducted several training workshops for the DTI staff on issues such as international trade and investment, and intellectual property law.
Professor Forere holds an LL.M from the University of Essex, UK and a PhD (magna cum laude) from the University of Bern, Switzerland.
Prior to joining the University of the Witwatersrand, she lectured various legal subjects at the University of KwaZulu-Natal; key among the courses that she lectured was intellectual property focusing specifically on access to medicines.
Professor Forere has published extensively in accredited South African journals and in international listed journals. She is the sole author of the book titled The Relationship of WTO Law and Regional Trade Agreements in Dispute Settlement: From Fragmentation to Coherence (Kluwer Law International, 2015).
Forere is a member of African International Economic Law Network and the Society of International Economic Law. She has done consultancy works for local and international institutions such as the World Bank. She is also an advocate of the High Court of South Africa.