[A2K] ACA2K/ IQsensato statement at WIPO SCCR 19

[Tobias Schönwetter]

Statement by ACA2K/ IQsensato to 19th Session of SCCR (WIPO)

[Made on Wednesday, 16 December, morning]

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

I speak on behalf of IQsensato, which welcomes the opportunity to
speak at this session of the SCCR. IQsensato’s purpose is to provide
an international platform for promoting the research and thinking of
researchers and experts to inform and shape international policy
debates and discussions such as the ones taking place in this
Committee. It is in this context, IQsensato has been collaborating
with the African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) Project
(http://www.aca2k.org/index.php/); a project that has explored for
over two years, through empirical research, the relationship between
national intellectual property (IP) frameworks, particularly the
copyright environments, and access to knowledge in African countries.
The project covers eight African countries, namely Egypt, Ghana,
Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.

Mr. Chairman, we are glad to share ACA2K’s findings pertaining to some
of the areas covered in this session, that is, distance learning,
visually impaired, and libraries and archives. These findings are
discussed in detail in ACA2K’s Briefing Paper 3 made available to
delegates at the 19th SCCR session.

With regards to distance learning, although a number of institutions
in the study countries have established distance learning programmes,
none of the national copyright laws of the eight study countries
specifically addresses distance learning. For example, Mozambique
integrated distance learning as one of its special education system
within its National System of Education in 1992, yet the national
copyright law carries no specific provisions for exceptions in
relation to distance learning. Also problematic for distance learning
in Africa is the existence of provisions prohibiting the circumvention
of technological protection measures (TPMs) in some national laws. Our
research confirms that anti-circumvention provisions exist in six
ACA2K study countries, either in the copyright statute (eg., Egypt,
Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Morocco) or in other associated law (eg., South
Africa’s Electronic Communications and Transactions Act). Only in
Morocco is there a specific exception allowing circumvention of TPMs
for non-commercial purposes by libraries, archives, educational
institutions and some broadcasters.

With respect to visually-impaired persons, only one of the eight ACA2K
study countries, Uganda, makes specific mention of the needs of the
visually-impaired in its copyright law, while Ghana in 2007 passed a
disability Act to allow exceptions and limitations for visually
impaired which allowed some of their universities to convert some
learning materials into Braille. In the other countries the lack of
mention of the visually-impaired in copyright law in some cases
contradicts other policies or laws, including constitutional rights,
and conflicts with access-enabling practices such as conversion of
copyright-protected materials into Braille.

Generally, provisions related to libraries and archives have been
found to be inadequate in the ACA2K study countries for facilitating
meaningful access to learning materials. Other than for preservation
and replacement purposes, and with the exception of Egypt and Kenya,
the copying of entire works by libraries and archives is not
explicitly permitted in ACA2K study countries, and there is a great
deal of uncertainty in most countries as to what portions of works can
be copied by libraries, and on what scale. Senegal, for example,
allows libraries and archives to copy works only if they are at an
advanced stage of degradation.

Those eight study countries are examples of countries that need to
incorporate into their copyright clear and access-enabling copyright
E&L specific to distance learning, visually-impaired persons and
library and archives. The work of this committee needs to provide a
framework for the study countries to incorporate into their copyright
laws such clear and access-enabling provisions - and cross-border
issues are critical in this which is why the discussions related to
E&L generally and with respect to a treaty for visually impaired
persons should be seen as particularly important for Africa.


Thank you Mr. Chairman.

--
Tobias Schonwetter

Intellectual Property Research Unit
Department of Private Law
University of Cape Town, South Africa
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