Copyright in South Africa
August 29, 2011
Copyright ©, Intellectual Property Information
Copyright Law in South Africa
Copyright in South Africa are government by the Copyright Act of 1978 and its amendments.
CIPRO and DTI oversee copyright in the country. As a member of the Berne Convention and TRIPS Agreement, copyright works protected in South Africa are also protected in other member states of the above.
Automatic Assignment of Rights
One doesn’t have to register copyright on a work for it to be protected. It is automatically assigned the moment an original creative work takes a tangible form.
Copyright apply to works that have some form of creativity embedded. As such a mere list of facts or data cannot be copyright protected. A grocery list for instance, is not a creative act and thus cannot be protected.
Works Protected
Copyright apply to computer programs, literary works, broadcasts, cinematographic films, artistic expressions such as music, photography, painting, drawing, and sculpting related works, and architectural works, as well as published editions and sound recordings.
With cinematograph films registration is required as such are complex works embedding several other creative works.
Usage Rights
Infringement of copyright can take place when a party copies, uses, sells, rents out, imports or disposes, stores and makes available copyright protected works in a manner not authorised by the copyright holder.
One can get usage and selling rights on a work through a license agreement. It is important to note that such rights can range from master reseller to mere usage rights. Royalties are paid to the copyright holder for such usage.
Copyright normally have lifespans of 50 years from a specific date and differ according to the work in question. In terms of for instance, a literary work, the duration is 50 years after the death of the original author.
One must also note that although a person can be the creator of the work, copyright can be assigned to another.
Contact us for legal guidance regarding copyright protection in South Africa and abroad.
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Copyright Dates
June 17, 2011
Attorneys, Copyright ©
When you see several dates in a copyright statement, it simply means that certain things were created in one year and modified later. It could also mean that new things were created and added in a later year.
It most definitely does not refer to the date that a copyright will expire. Expiration of a copyright actually takes place much later, and this period of validity begins from the date that you see in the copyright statement.
The Berne Convention establishes a general and minimum period that lasts the life of the author and fifty years after his (or her) death.
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Moral Rights in Copyright
April 7, 2011
Attorneys, Copyright ©
Moral rights refer to rights under copyright laws that protect the rights of the creators of the work. The moral rights fall within the scope of civil law and include rights such as the right to have a work published under a specific name or anonymous, and the right to have the integrity of the work protected.
Copyright awards two types of rights – that of economic and moral rights. An author for instance, has the right to gain an income from the work created while a moral right will include the right to be recognized as the author of the work. Transferring of the rights to a work doesn’t include the transfer of moral rights. The creators of original and copyright protected work thus retain their moral rights to the works.
Moral rights are protected under the Berne Convention of 1928. The USA though doesn’t recognize all the moral rights as set out in the Berne Convention. One of the most important moral rights is the right to prevent misattribution of a work. Another important moral right is the right to keep a work from being distorted or modified in such a manner that it harms the creator’s reputation.
Visual artists have moral rights in the USA under VARA, which stands for Visual Artists Rights Act giving them the right to authorship and the prevention of the use of the artist’s name on work not created by the artist, right to prevent the mutilation or changing of the work that would harm the artist’s reputation, and the right to prevent any form of destruction of an art work.
It is important to note that not all countries recognize the same moral rights in copyright. If you are an artist or author who wants to know your moral rights to a work, contact us at Smit & Van Wyk for an appointment.
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Historical overview of South African Copyright Law
March 7, 2011
Copyright ©
The South African Copyright Law regulates all aspects of copyright in the country including the rights to compensation, acknowledgement, authorship, usage, and distribution of works protected under the South African Copyright Law.
The main South African Copyright Laws are to be found in the 1978 Copyright Act and the amendment acts which have flown from it. CIPRO, which stands for Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office, oversees registration of copyright regarding for instance, cinematograph films and videos for commercial purposes.
The South African Copyright Law is governed in part by the fact that South Africa is a Berne Convention member and is a party to the TRIPS Agreement. With that then works copyright protected in other Berne Convention countries are thus also copyright protected in South Africa and vice versa.
The original Copyright Act of 1911 was replaced by the 1965 Copyright Act when South Africa became an independent republic in 1961. The South African Copyright Law, however, was still strongly based on the British Copyright Law. With the latest Copyright Act of 1978, a move was made from the heavy reliance on the British Copyright Law to South African Copyright Law that embedded elements from the British Copyright Law and the Berne Convention.
It wasn’t the final copyright act, since many amendments followed since 1978. One such an amendment was the 1992 amendment which placed computer programs in a separate class of copyright protection.
Under South African Copyright Law there are eight more classes of work which are protected including that of literary, musical, and artistic works, as well as sound recordings, published editions, and cinematograph films. Each of the classes has a specific period of protection associated with such.
Contact us at Smit & Van Wyk Intellectual Property Attorneys for assistance regarding any copyright related issues.
Copyright Articles
- Copyright for Cinematographic Film
If you want to register copyright on a cinematograph film in South Africa, you will have to complete a copyright application… - Copyright Infringement on the Internet
Too many amateur photographers make the mistake of thinking that any photo they upload to the internet will automatically… - Software Copyright
Once the computer program is created in a material form, the work is instantly subject to copyright… - Copyright in South Africa
There are two principal international copyright conventions, the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright… - Cinematograph Films Copyright Registration
The only form of copyright which can be registered in South Africa, is copyright in a cinematographic film… - USA Copyright Registrations
In the U.S copyright registrations can be filed through the United States Copyright… - Copyright Facts
The general rule is that the author / writer / photographer / creator is the first owner of copyright…
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Why apply for Copyright Protection?
January 15, 2010
Copyright ©
In South Africa, like in most Berne Convention countries, copyright subsist in a qualified work, the moment that the work is created in physical form. Therefore, no registration of copyright is necessary for copyright to subsist.
Copyright provides exclusivity to the owner thereof to perform certain acts in respect of the works. In South Africa it is advisable to add the copyright symbol before the name and year or as an alternative write the word ‘copyright’ before the name and year.
The South African Copyright Act makes provision to register copyright in cinematograph films. The benefit of registering such copyright is that the rights that already subsist in the copyright owner is recorded at CIPRO and, should the owner thereof institute proceedings, such registration can be used as proof of such rights.
In event that copyright is not registered in cinematograph films, such rights first have to be proved during the course of the proceedings.
Copyright Articles
- Copyright for Cinematographic Film
If you want to register copyright on a cinematograph film in South Africa, you will have to complete a copyright application… - Copyright Infringement on the Internet
Too many amateur photographers make the mistake of thinking that any photo they upload to the internet will automatically… - Software Copyright
Once the computer program is created in a material form, the work is instantly subject to copyright… - Copyright in South Africa
There are two principal international copyright conventions, the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright… - Cinematograph Films Copyright Registration
The only form of copyright which can be registered in South Africa, is copyright in a cinematographic film… - USA Copyright Registrations
In the U.S copyright registrations can be filed through the United States Copyright… - Copyright Facts
The general rule is that the author / writer / photographer / creator is the first owner of copyright…
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