“The idea was to improve the law for creators – specifically for musicians, but also for authors of written works and for visual artists. But this ran into strong opposition from those who wished to disseminate books and journal articles freely to pupils and students under the principle of ‘access’.
“The Copyright Amendment Bill allows works intended ‘for education’ to be copied without permission or payment. There are conditions attached – it is not quite so simple – but the bottom line is that authors of books written for schools and universities will suffer a loss of royalties because their books will be bought in much smaller numbers. Hardest hit will be authors writing in indigenous languages as their readership among the general public is small, and their books are only bought in large numbers when prescribed for schools and universities.
“Some claim that the overriding importance is ‘access’ and that copyright law ‘locks away’ information. Some even claim that copyright prevents people from creating! Although copyright is a subject that easily inflames emotions, it is often poorly understood.
“Anfasa supports access. We do not write to lock our work away and hide it from readers – we understand that knowledge requires accessible information… Read More
