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Proposed copyright legislation will make South Africa a world leader in screwing writers, musicians, filmmakers and academics, among others.
South Africans all know the sad story of Solomon Linda, the man who wrote the world-famous song The Lion Sleeps Tonight but died with R150 in his bank account, not enough to mark his final resting place with a gravestone. The story of Linda, his song, and the fact that he died a pauper despite his song providing the soundtrack for the fabulously popular Disney animated movie The Lion King, makes South Africans deeply angry. Understandably.
So angry that SA is on the brink of changing its copyright laws in ways that are hugely controversial so that this kind of colonialist, exploitative nonsense will never happen again. The problem is that although the legislation is notionally designed to prevent outrageous travesties of justice like the Linda saga, it’s likely to have exactly the opposite effect. Or at least, this is what the detractors claim. And the detractors, in this case, are SA’s entire music industry, film industry and publishing industry.
You would think that a group this broad agreeing among themselves would be enough to stop the legislation in its tracks….
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