Introduction
If you are one of the following, copyright is going to affect you at some stage:
| Actor | Advertising executive |
| App developer | Architect |
| Artist | Author |
| Blogger | Broadcaster |
| Cameraman | Carpenter |
| Celebrity | Cinema |
| Coder | Composer |
| Copywriter | Craftsperson |
| DJ | Draughtsperson |
| Editor | Educator |
| Employee | Employer of any creatives |
| Engineer | Entertainment venue owner |
| Film producer | Graphic artist |
| Industrial designer | Journalist |
| Learner | Librarian |
| Music arranger | Music user |
| Musician | Newspaper |
| Patternmaker | Performing artist |
| Photographer | Poet |
| Potter | Publisher |
| Recording artist | Restaurateur |
| Scriptwriter | Sculptor |
| Social media user | Software developer |
| Student | Studio musician |
| Teacher | Translator |
| Video game creator | Videographer |
Introduction
Pause to reflect on that list you have just read. In most cases, if not all, you will connect the occupations with one or other creative enterprise, from artist to muso, from software developer to scriptwriter. The bottom line is that all the occupations referred to (and, no doubt, there are more) interface with copyright in one way or another. Actually, a lot of people talk about their ‘IP’. You might hear a film scriptwriter, for example, talk about her IP — she means her copyright.
The whole system of copyright is regulated by statute; in this case, the Copyright Act 98 of 1978. One of the ways in which copyright is different from other forms of intellectual property is that you do not have to register anything before you have copyright. A patent, on the other hand, does not exist until it is registered. The first thing to bear in mind is that copyright exists automatically from the moment something is created. You do not have to do anything to get copyright — except create something.
In fact, you cannot register copyright. There is a system for recording the ownership of the copyright in cinematograph films in a register, but this is just to make enforcement easier. The register has nothing to do with whether any copyright exists or not.
We know of the works of great music composers like Mozart and Beethoven, and the ‘works of Shakespeare’. Here, the word ‘works’ means the complete collection of what was produced by that author, composer, etc. Viewed like this, a work is something that has been created — because the author worked on it — and it is used in that sense in copyright law.
So, copyright comes into existence automatically, once the work is created. However, the Copyright Act is quite specific about the various requirements that must be met — think of boxes to be ticked. When we refer to the existence of copyright, (‘subsistence’ is a better expression) or the ownership of copyright, if one requirement is not met — in other words, a particular box is not ticked — this can change whether copyright subsists at all. Another box can determine the identity of the proprietor — in other words, who owns the copyright. Just stay with me on this, it will become clear.
Compliance with the requirements of the Copyright Act becomes very important in enforcement proceedings.
Read the Copyright Act 98 of 1978: www.cipc.co.za/legislation/acts.
Keep in mind what copyright is all about: just say the word, and you’ve got it. Copyright is the right to copy. This means that the copyright owner is the only one who has the right to reproduce (i.e. to copy) his work. We know what a right is, so we can understand that this means the owner can prevent anyone and everyone else from reproducing (copying) his work.
The Introduction to this book noted that if you create it, you own it. Generally, this is correct. Unfortunately, when it comes to copyright that is often not the case, and so we will go carefully through all the variations on this theme.
Of course, not all works are capable of reproduction in the same way. We will look at how the various kinds of works can be reproduced. In the end, however, copyright boils down to having the right to control the reproduction of a work.
To summarise: copyright can only subsist in particular works. Whether copyright does subsist depends on a few basic requirements. These are: originality; representation in a material form; whether the author is a ‘qualified person’ or whether the work has first been published in South Africa.