ACA2K South Africa Node
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South Africa ACA2K Country Node
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Dr. Tobias Schonwetter
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Principal Investigator & South Africa research team member, University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa
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Ms. Caroline Ncube
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South Africa research team member, University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa
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Ms. Pria Chetty
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South Africa research team member, Chetty Law, Johannesburg, South Africa
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The South African context is an important one for this research project because, among other things, of the country's role as Africa's largest economy (with a strong publishing sector), and the government's role in the African Group of the WIPO "Friends of Development" (FoD) grouping of nations.
South Africa is also home to several projects and centres looking at the intersection between copyright and knowledge access, including Creative Commons (cc) South Africa, The African Commons Project (TACP), the Publishing with Alternative Licensing Models (PALM Africa) project, the University of Cape Town (UCT) Intellectual Property Law and Policy Research Unit, and the LINK Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Two members of the South African ACA2K research team, Tobias Schonwetter and Caroline Ncube, are members of the UCT Intellectual Property Law and Policy Research Unit, which was officially established in 2007. The LINK Centre, which is managing the ACA2K project, hosted the pioneering 2005 Common-Sense African Digital Commons conference, funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and helped launch Creative Commons South Africa in that same year. Another pioneering South African-based project in the area of copyright and knowledge access was the 2004-06 Access to Learning Materials in Southern Africa (A2LMSA) initiative, funded by the Open Society Institute (OSI) and managed by Achal Prabhala, who now serves as an ACA2K Principal Investigator.
South Africa is also home to the Shuttleworth Foundation, which is one of the ACA2K funders and was until recently the base for ACA2K Advisor Andrew Rens, who helped establish the ACA2K project while serving as the foundation's Intellectual Property Fellow in the period 2007-09.
The copyright law and policy environment has been a highly contested one in recent years in South Africa, with two attempts at copyright law reform meeting with significant opposition and subsequently being abandoned. The status of copyright reform is currently uncertain but the South African Department of Trade and Industry (dti) has said it is soon to embark on a review process.
South Africa and neighbouring countries in Southern Africa were a site of struggle in the period 2003 to 2006 around US efforts to include "TRIPs-plus" copyright provisions in a free trade agreement (FTA). The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) sought to negotiate an FTA with the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) group of countries: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. The draft FTA reportedly included TRIPs-plus provisions such as copyright terms beyond 50 years and entrenchment of the use of technological protection measures (TPMs). The FTA talks stalled after lack of support from SACU negotiators.
Academic and Non-Fiction Authors' Association of South Africa (ANFASA)
Open Review of the South African Copyright Act
Dramatic, Artistic & Literary Rights Organization (DALRO) (South Africa)
Intellectual Property Law and Policy Research Unit, University of Cape Town (UCT)
LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand
National Organisation for Reproduction Rights in Music in Southern Africa Limited
Publishing with Alternative Licensing Models (PALM Africa) project
Publishers' Association of South Africa (PASA)
South African Music Rights Organization (SAMRO)
Shuttleworth Foundation
The African Commons Project (TACP)
Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa (TRALAC)
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