Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ccafrica - Re: [ccAfrica] SEACONET Model Copyright law

ccafrica AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Creative Commons Jurisdiction Teams in Sub-Saharan Africa

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Alex Gakuru <gakuru AT gmail.com>
  • To: Dick Kawooya <dkawooya AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: ccafrica AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ccAfrica] SEACONET Model Copyright law
  • Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 22:26:58 +0300

And let's not forget that a number of Africa's laws are drafted by outsiders and handed to legislators to enact them. Consider, for example, recent comments on Kenya's Public Procurement and Disposal Act, 2005:

"The country's procurement rules are frustrating the smooth implementation of government projects, Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said.
The premier criticized the current procurement laws, saying that were imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to curb financial irregularities at a time when corruption was rife in the country, and hence have outlived their intended purpose." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd4edWI41M0

On copyright, Kenya has in the past witnessed state agencies, using public funds, enforce copyright crackdowns at the behest of multinational corporations. We need to read and scrutinize the proposed 'model' law to satisfy ourselves that indeed they are not engineered to serve foreign copyright holders interests while at the same time weakening local creatives position and/or well-known African sharing culture, well resonating with CC.     

regards,

Alex

 

On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 10:07 PM, Dick Kawooya <dkawooya AT gmail.com> wrote:

I agree with Alex. It would help to see the model law itself so we know exactly what is being proposed. Beyond that, we've to be wary of attempts to harmonize laws across the board without due consideration for unique circumstances prevailing in different countries. Even in Africa, there are important nuances that might warrant local solutions not to mention regional ones (e.g. EAC). Besides, unquestionable harmonization from advanced economies is what many have been against in WIPO and elsewhere. Meeting WTO deadlines cannot be an excuse to harmonize across the board. Of course I can understand if participating countries will be encouraged to pick and choose what applies to them but presenting the model as the law for everybody to adopt. This is of particular concern given the participation of copyright administrators.

Dick

On Oct 7, 2012 2:43 PM, "Alex Gakuru" <gakuru AT gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks Charles. It would have been great to read the reported original 'model law' proposed. It's a shame SEACONET's website 'documents' page is blank http://www.seaconet.org/?page_id=9   Would anyone have a copy to share?

thanks

On Sat, Oct 6, 2012 at 3:15 PM, charles batambuze <batambuze_charles AT hotmail.com> wrote:
fyi

SEACONET moots regional model copyright law

0 Nabotu / September 22, 2012 18:39 SEACONET moots regional model copyright law By Staff Writer
 Lilongwe: SEACONET- the Southern and Eastern African Copyright Network a regional association composed of National Copyright Offices and Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) met in Lilongwe, Malawi recently



_______________________________________________
ccAfrica mailing list
ccAfrica AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ccafrica



_______________________________________________
ccAfrica mailing list
ccAfrica AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ccafrica





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page