In December 2021, the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry at South Africa’s National Assembly called for public submissions and comments on new, substantive amendments to the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B-2017], based on inputs from the previous public consultation in June 2021. 

The wide scope of the proposed amendments surprised many stakeholders because the previous consultation was clearly limited to certain, specific issues contained in reservations by the President on the constitutionality of some sections of the Bill. Instead, EIFL’s review showed the new amendments in effect frustrate the proposed exceptions for quotations, reporting of current events, translation, personal use, as well as activities of libraries and archives, including lending, access to digital works, making preservation copies, format-shifting and inter-library document supply. As a result, the bill, if adopted in its current form, would risk failing in a key policy objective: to ensure access to information for research, education, libraries and archives and developmental goals.

EIFL’s comments focused on Section 19C of the Bill, the exception for libraries, archives, museums and galleries (GLAMs), but the concerns raised apply to many of the other exceptions too.