Parliament, Friday, 12 October 2018 – Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry is calling for comments on additional clauses to the Copyright Amendment Bill.

Committee Chairperson, Ms Joanmariae Fubbs, said these clauses are:

1) Amending the existing definition of ‘collecting society’ (clause 1);

2) Adding the rights of distribution and rental (clause 4, section 6) in order for the Copyright Act to provide for rights of distribution and authorising rental;

3) Requiring recording of acts in respect of audio-visual works and providing for an offence in this regard (clause 9, Section 8A) to provide for an obligation to record and report certain acts, and to provide for an offence should a person fail to do so;

4) Empowering collecting societies further (clause 25, Section 22C), by allowing the right to request information and to clarify what collecting societies may negotiate on behalf of members;

5) Creating an offence for not providing information to a collecting society (clause 25, Section 22C) in order to empower collecting societies further by providing that failure to provide correct information would constitute an offence;

6) Providing for the skills of an administrator to be appointed for a collecting society (clause 25, section 22F) with the intention to clarify that when the Commission has to take over the administration of a collecting society, the Commission must approach the Tribunal for the appointment of an administrator to assist the Commission, and to provide for the skills of such an administrator; and

7) To clarify section 28 (clause 28) to avoid unintended consequences and will apply where work was not made with the authorisation of the copyright owner.

Ms Fubbs calls on interested individuals and groups to comment on the additional clauses in the Bill and forward written submissions to the committee by no later than Friday, 26 October 2018. The committee will consider these comments during it deliberations on the Bill.

Written submissions should be forwarded to Mr André Hermans and Mr Tenda Madima, Committee Secretaries, via email at ahermans@parliament.gov.za or tmadima@parliament.gov.za respectively. The notice from the committee on the specific clauses mentioned above can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/y94cla3x

ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON TRADE AND INDUSTRY, JOANMARIAE FUBBS

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