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ccafrica - [ccAfrica] 'Photocopying whole books is illegal’ ~ The Observer

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Subject: Creative Commons Jurisdiction Teams in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Primah Kwagala <kwagalap AT gmail.com>
  • To: ugandas-access-to-education-materials-strategy-group AT googlegroups.com, cc-uganda AT googlegroups.com, "ccafrica AT lists.ibiblio.org" <ccafrica AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ccAfrica] 'Photocopying whole books is illegal’ ~ The Observer
  • Date: Tue, 7 May 2013 16:16:20 +0300

FYA,
 
See http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25089&catid=85&Itemid=106&fb_source=ticker&fb_action_ids=10151556482909566&fb_action_types=og.likes
Uganda recently commemorated World Books and Copyright day and Racheal Ninsiima talked to Charles Batambuze, the executive secretary of the National Book Trust of Uganda (Nabotu), on copyright issues.

What do you specifically cover under ‘copyright’?

 Copyright [ensures] a person who has created a work [has] protection [and] economic and moral rights to the work. The moral right is about attribution while the economic right is what authors and publishers exchange for money and, normally, there are contracts that are signed for this exchange to happen. Copyright is spelt out in the 2006 Uganda Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act.

Which works are eligible for copyright?

Literary works such as novels and journals, movies, photographs, cartoon characters and songs.

What are the benefits of having a copyright?

When you have a copyright, you are protected by law and you have exclusive rights to authorizing people to use your work. So, no one is supposed to use your work without your permission. It thus gives you a certain degree of monopoly and control over the reproduction of your work, i.e., importation and exportation, reproduction, translation, adaptation and rental of the original work.

What is the duration of a copyright?

For literary works such as novels, poetry, newspaper and magazine articles, a copyright is [valid for] 50 years after [one’s] death. And in the case of multiple authors, it is 50 years after the death of the last author. For photographs, maps, paintings, drawings, graphic art and cartoon characters, the duration is 20 years after the death of the creator.

How good is Uganda’s existing copyright law?

The 2006 law is an improvement from the one which was enacted in 1964 because it has provisions for the visually-impaired persons to access learning materials, especially in terms of converting text into Braille. It also provides for a compulsory licence which is issued for people to access important learning content and also has a mechanism for enforcement.

One of the challenges we have in Uganda is commercial piracy where people duplicate movies and books but the new law provides for copyright inspectors and they do not need a court order to inspect buildings where there is reasonable suspicion that infringement is happening. These inspectors can go to the extent of representing rights holders in courts of law.

The new law also has a provision for fair use or fair dealing where users do not have to revert to the copyright owners to seek permission to use their work. This means copyrighted work can be used by someone for private study, educational use and make citations and quotes out of the work. It also has a provision on collective management provisions which exist to license users in order to protect copyright. We have three in Uganda; Uganda Performing Rights Society (for musical works), Uganda Federation of Movie Industry (for audio visual rights) and the Uganda Reproductive Rights Organization (for literary works).

However, there are still weaknesses, especially with access to learning materials. For visually-impaired persons, the law limits them to only Braille material but with technology, we know that there are different ways in which they can access material but the law does not provide for this.

Secondly, there is a ban on parallel importation which is about buying from the cheaper market outside Uganda. This means Ugandans have to put up with high prices of books being sold in the country. In terms of collective management organizations, the weakness is that it was set up with music rights in mind.

This is because for one to access musical works, he/she has to get a direct mandate which is not the same for literary works where one has to get indirect mandates from associations of rights holders such as Uganda Writers Association as opposed to approaching individual writers. It might be important to make this change.

Do you have specific examples of copyright infringement in Uganda?

In the area of literary works, the most famous case was that of New Styles bookshop Vs publishers of Introduction to Biology. The case was settled in court and New Styles paid heavily.

In later years, we have not had many cases of literary infringement being brought to court. However, commercial piracy is on the rise in Uganda and we need to engage the police in cracking down on this vice.

What defences are available to copyright infringement?

If a university library has lent out a book to students and they have photocopied it, there are defences that the library can use like ‘fair use’ or fair dealings. Under this law, photocopying work for private or educational use is allowed. However, the law puts a cuff on photocopying, stating that it is allowed as long as it does not make profit from it.

But what is happening these days at universities where whole books are photocopied is certainly illegal.

How about work on the internet; how is one’s work protected?

Most of the work on the internet is protected under ‘All rights reserved.’ This means that people who copy from the internet need to provide attribution of the author and the website. But if one copies from the internet for commercial exploitation, then it is an infringement of copyright.

These days, people are licensing their work on the internet using creative commons licences or open-access publishing. These spell out the freedoms they have concerning the work.

How is copyright infringement punishable?

Copyright infringement is both a criminal and civil offence and the punishments vary according to what the law stipulates.

What myths are usually associated with copyright infringement?

That it is okay to copy foreign work and distribute foreign movies or music, after all the owners are not protected here. But the truth is that they are protected by our laws the same way we protect our local work.

Another myth is that in Uganda, no one cares about infringement, but some of the music pirates have faced the wrath of the law.

How may one avoid copyright infringement?

One may consider the provision of fair use, fair dealing and if a person wants to use a work for economic purposes, it is always necessary to get authorization from the copyright holder. If this is not possible, then collective management organizations can be able to help.

--
Primah kwagala
Centre for Health Human Rights and Development *(CEHURD)
kwagalap AT gmail.com
0774207358
"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for "
Kofi Annan





  • [ccAfrica] 'Photocopying whole books is illegal’ ~ The Observer, Primah Kwagala, 05/07/2013

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