South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill: Its Genesis and Passage through Parliament

[Denise Rosemary Nicholson] The reform of copyright law in South Africa, particularly for the library and educational sectors, has been a long and bumpy road since 1998. Our copyright law is 41 years old - and broken! The exceptions for education, research, and libraries and archives have not been amended since 1978. The Act has no provisions for people with disabilities, nor provisions for galleries and museums. Being so old, it obviously does not address the digital world. "Fair dealing" in Section 12 of the Act is outdated, limited and not 'future-proof'.