WHAT IS COPYRIGHT? - SOUTH AFRICA
The Copyright Act of 1978 states in terms of section 2 that sound recordings and musical works are eligible for copyright. In other words, the Act will grant protection to these categories of works.
The right of copying a sound recording is one of the exclusive rights that vests in the "author" of that recording and the right of copying a musical work is one of the exclusive rights that vests in the "author" of that work. The author of a sound recording is defined in Section 1 of the Act as "the person by whom the arrangement for the making of the sound recording was made" (typically a record company) whilst the "author" of a musical work is defined as "the person who first makes or created the work" (the composer or lyricists).
Copyright is infringed by (Section 23(1)) "any person, not being the owner of the copyright who, without licence of such owner, does or causes any other person to do, in the Republic, any act which the owner of the copyright has the exclusive right to do or to authorize".
Any unauthorised copying of music CDs, cassettes and vinyl records that were released less than 50 years ago (the term of Copyright) and where the composer and lyricist has not been dead for at least 50 years, will constitute an infringement of copyright in terms of South Africa's Copyright Act. It is important to remember that the buyer of a CD, cassette or vinyl record only becomes the owner of the physical product and not the intellectual property contained therein. In addition, the motive with which an unauthorised copy is made is irrelevant for the purposes of the application of the Act. The mere fact that it is unauthorised makes it an infringement in terms of the Act.
