Looping in Dimi, who's been working on this at the EU level. Dimi can no doubt advise on the text of a proposed amendment.
A. On Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 3:30 PM, Douglas Scott <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello everyone, > > As many of you no doubt know the Copy Right Act 1978 section 15 (3) > < > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_panorama#South_Africa > > > has been a bone of some contention for the South Africa Wikipedia community > for a long time now as it has effectively meant that we here in South > Africa are denied Freedom of Panorama > <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_panorama>. > > Last week I was fortunate enough to have attended an event organised by Dr > Tobias Schonwetter from UCT (and from Creative Commons South Africa) to > discuss a suggested redrafting of the act. I am happy to say that I feel I > was able to make a good case to the relevant authorities from the > Department of Trade and Industry as well as others present for the need to > revise the act to allow for Freedom of Panorama. I feel they were very > sympathetic to our concerns about the need and desirability of Freedom of > Panorama in South Africa. > > Now comes the hard part. We need to work on a suggested revision of > Section 15 (3) (or Section 15 generally) to allow for Freedom of Panorama > and we need to do it quickly as the deadline for submissions to change the > act is the 27th of August 2015. > > My suggestion is to use the Spanish or German Freedom of Panorama acts as > guidelines for us which basically state that people are free to take > pictures or otherwise reproduce works that are permanently found outside on > public ways, streets or places (e.g. squares, plazas) and to distribute and > publicly communicate such copies. > > Or as the Spanish act says: "Works permanently located in parks, streets, > squares or other public places may be freely reproduced, distributed and > communicated by means of paintings, drawings, photographs and audiovisual > processes." and goes on to state that this "may not be so interpreted that > they could be applied in a manner capable of unreasonably prejudicing the > legitimate interests of the author or adversely affecting the normal > exploitation of the works to which they refer." > > I want to notify the community of this opportunity for us to amended the > act as well as the progress the Chapter (Wikimedia South Africa) has made > in possibly getting Freedom of Panorama established in South Africa. > > I also wanted to let you know that should you have any comments of your own > on the amendment of the Copy Right act of 1978 then please have a look at > the link here > < > http://saha.org.za/news/2015/August/call_for_comment_copyright_amendment_bill.htm > > > for more information as well as the contact details of the contact person > at the DTI. > > Thanks and best regards, > > Douglas. > > -- > Douglas Ian Scott > 司道格 > Skype: douglas0scott > South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727 > _______________________________________________ > WikimediaZA mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza > -- Asaf Bartov Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! https://donate.wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ WikimediaZA mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza
