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The South African government plans to introduce legislation assigning responsibilities to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to help combat copyright infringement online.
These plans were revealed in a draft of the white paper that was published by Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams on October 9 in the Government Gazette.
Titled “A new vision for South Africa 2020The document proposes a comprehensive review of the regulations governing the South African broadcasting industry, including issues related to online piracy.
“There is a critical need for legislation that requires ISPs to cooperate with rights holders and the government to police illegal file sharing or streaming websites. Currently, neither the Electronic Communications Law nor the copyright law covers this aspect ”, said the draft of the technical document.
“Piracy is damaging South Africa’s creative industries and the economic contribution of sporting events. Steps must be taken to protect South African content and intellectual property rights holders, ”the newspaper said.
“Service providers, producers and performers in developing countries are the hardest hit by piracy as they do not have the economies of scale of international suppliers or distributors and are highly dependent on the revenue generated. for the sale and exploitation of its intellectual property rights. “
Signal piracy
The white paper also proposed that the Electronic Transactions and Communications Act be amended to strengthen protection against signal piracy.
“There must be cooperation between government departments to ensure that legal prohibitions against piracy and circumvention of technology protection measures are periodically reviewed to ensure that they remain effective against evolving technology solutions employed by individuals engaged in piracy. of Audio and Audiovisual Content of South Africa “. said the newspaper.
According to the draft white paper, piracy results in lost revenue throughout the content distribution chain, whether by pirating broadcast signals or content.
“Artists, performers, writers and producers of such content make a living by being creative and charging service providers for the right to broadcast or broadcast their content,” the newspaper said.
Another victim of piracy is broadcasters and other content distributors in South Africa, he said.
“Licensed service providers in South Africa make significant investments in acquiring or licensing third-party programming, which they organize and package with their own content when creating their programming program,” says the draft whitepaper.
“If financial returns are diverted to content and signal pirates, it becomes difficult for service providers to continue to make these significant investments.”
Cybercrime bill
the Cybercrime bill It imposes an obligation on ISPs to report piracy cases and retain any information related to the incident that may be useful to the authorities.
However, the Internet Service Providers Association of South Africa (ISPA) has stated that ISPs cannot have an obligation to monitor the traffic of their subscribers, in accordance with the Electronic Communications Act.
“ISPA does not believe that this is a correct interpretation of the bill as it currently stands: rather it is an explicit provision of the Electronic Communications Act that ISPs have no general obligation to monitor electronic communications transmitted or stored on their networks. – and they may be responsible for a crime if they do so, ”argued the organization.
Another legal opinion is that although ISPs may not monitor their customers’ traffic, if they find out through different means of a copyright infringement on their network, they should report it to the police and keep any evidence that may help the investigation. official.
The bill requires ISPs to report such crimes to SAPS without undue delay. Whenever possible, ISPs should report violations within 72 hours of their knowledge.
The cybercrime bill is approved by the National Council of Provinces and it only awaits the signature of President Cyril Ramaphosa to become law.
The white paper, “A New Vision for South Africa 2020”, is currently in draft form and the Minister has invited members of the public to submit comments on the policy by November 30, 2020.
Now Read: The Government Will Crack Down On Netflix And YouTube In South Africa
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