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The copyright law of South Africa states that authorship of certain works qualifies for protection against unlicensed usage, distribution or copying of such work.
Under the South African copyright law specific guidelines are provided regarding which works qualify for copyright protection.
Under current South African copyright law, the following works receive copyright protection:
- Literary work in the form of articles, books, press releases, manuscripts, reports, and speeches.
- Musical work in the form of songs, lyrics, compositions, and recordings.
- Artistic works such as paintings and drawings.
- Published editions such as first editions of a work.
- Signal bearing programs.
- Sound recordings such as the DVD recorded in a studio.
- Films – the production.
- Broadcastings – the broadcasting of a program.
- Computer programs.
The question often arises as to who the copyright belongs. Take for instance, a broadcast. Who will have the copyright on the broadcast? Under South African Copyright Law, the first broadcaster will have the rights.
The person who made the arrangements for the production of a film will be the copyright holder thereof and with a signal carrying program the first person emitting that signal to the satellite will be the copyright holder. Unfortunately it is not always clear cut as to whom the copyright belongs.
As such it is recommended that you contact the team of Smit & Van Wyk for assistance in establishing whether you are indeed the copyright holder of a particular work or not.
Contact us for assistance today.
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