Every legal opinion, court paper and formal submission ReCreate has produced or relied on, in one place. Each document can be read in full on this site and downloaded as a PDF.
The Constitutional Court case
The President referred the Copyright Amendment Bill to the Constitutional Court. ReCreate was admitted as an amicus curiae and filed argument in defence of the Bill. These are the papers.
- ReCreate’s Written Submissions to the Constitutional Court, May 2025ReCreate Action’s final written submissions to the Constitutional Court in the President’s referral of the Copyright Amendment Bill. Admitted as an amicus curiae, ReCreate argues that…
- ReCreate Action’s amicus curiae application to the Constitutional CourtReCreate Action’s founding affidavit seeking admission as amicus curiae in the Constitutional Court proceedings on the Copyright Amendment Bill, on behalf of seventeen affiliated…
- ReCreate’s Amicus Application to the Constitutional Court, with AnnexuresThe complete filed version of ReCreate Action’s application for admission as an amicus curiae, including the founding affidavit and all annexures — among them the consent letters from…
- ReCreate’s Table of AuthoritiesThe list of cases, statutes, treaties and academic sources relied on in ReCreate’s written submissions to the Constitutional Court. Useful as a reading list for anyone following the…
- Constitutional Court Order Admitting ReCreate as Amicus CuriaeThe Constitutional Court’s order of 23 January 2025 admitting ReCreate Action, and the other applicants, as amici curiae in the President’s referral of the Copyright Amendment Bill…
- Constitutional Court Directives, November 2024Directions issued by the Chief Justice on how the President’s referral of the Copyright Amendment Bill would be case-managed — the questions the Court wanted addressed, who had to file…
- Constitutional Court Directives, February 2025Further directions from the Constitutional Court in the referral, dealing with supplementary argument and the conduct of the hearing.
- Constitutional Court Amended Notice of Set DownThe Registrar’s amended notice setting down the hearing of the President’s referral of the Copyright Amendment Bill in the Constitutional Court.
- Blind SA v Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition — Constitutional Court JudgmentThe Constitutional Court’s judgment in Blind SA’s challenge to the Copyright Act, holding that the Act unjustifiably limits the rights of people with visual and print disabilities and…
Legal opinions
Senior counsel and academic opinions commissioned or supported by ReCreate on the constitutionality of the Bill, the President’s referral, and how the Bill should be tagged.
- Legal Opinion 1: The Copyright Amendment Bill and the ConstitutionSenior Counsel were asked by ReCreate whether the objections raised by third parties against the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B–2017] amount to any impediment to the President signing…
- Legal Opinion 1a: Summary of the Senior Counsel OpinionA short plain-language summary of the October 2019 Senior Counsel opinion, prepared for readers who want the conclusions without the full argument. It sets out why counsel found no…
- Legal Opinion 2: The President’s Referral of the Copyright Amendment BillIn June 2020 the President referred the Copyright Amendment Bill and the Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill back to the National Assembly under section 79(1) of the Constitution…
- Legal Opinion 3: The Tagging of the Copyright Amendment BillOne of the President’s reservations was that the Copyright Amendment Bill had been incorrectly “tagged” — classified as a section 75 bill rather than a section 76 bill, which would…
- Legal Opinion 4: On the New Proposed AmendmentsAfter Parliament reconsidered the Bill, a further round of amendments was proposed. ReCreate SA sought an opinion on whether these new proposals addressed the President’s reservations…
- Professor Thomas Hoeren: Legal Opinion on the Copyright Amendment BillProfessor Dr Thomas Hoeren of the Institute for Information, Telecommunications and Media Law at the University of Münster examines the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B–2017] and its…
- First and Second Joint Academic Opinions on the Copyright Amendment BillNine South African and international copyright scholars set out a joint academic assessment of the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B–2017] and the President’s reservations about it. The…
- Third Joint Academic Opinion on the Copyright Amendment BillA third joint opinion by copyright scholars, this time on the further-amended Bill [B13D–2017] as it went to the National Council of Provinces. It reviews the changes Parliament made…
Submissions to Parliament
Written submissions and letters to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, from ReCreate and from allied organisations working on libraries, education and disability rights.
- ReCreate Written Submission to Parliament, January 2022ReCreate South Africa’s written submission to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, commenting on the additional definitions and clauses proposed for the Copyright Amendment…
- ReCreate Action: Comments on the Latest Proposed ChangesReCreate Action — the voluntary association of activists and trade unionists formed in 2021 to support Blind SA’s litigation — sets out its concern that some of the latest proposed…
- Submission on the Copyright Amendment Bill — Denise NicholsonDenise R. Nicholson, copyright and scholarly communications consultant and recipient of the SALI Trust–LIASA Lifetime Achievement Award, sets out her submission on the Copyright…
- BlindSA and SECTION27 Submission on the December 2021 AmendmentsA detailed submission on the amendments published on 8 December 2021, focused on accessible format shifting and the rights of people with visual and print disabilities. It analyses the…
- CHELSA and LIASA Joint Submission on the Copyright Amendment BillA joint submission from the Committee for Higher Education Libraries of South Africa and the Library and Information Association of South Africa on the amendments advertised in…
- EIFL’s Submission to Parliament on the Copyright Amendment BillElectronic Information for Libraries, which works with libraries in more than 50 developing and transition economies, made a submission on the Bill’s exceptions for libraries…
- AfLIA’s Letter to Parliament on the Copyright Amendment BillThe African Library and Information Associations and Institutions wrote to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry in support of the Copyright Amendment Bill, setting out why…
- Letter to President Ramaphosa: Pass the Bills Into LawAn open letter from ReCreate to President Cyril Ramaphosa urging that the long-awaited Copyright Amendment Bill and Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill be passed into law without…
The 2020 and 2023 parliamentary process
The briefings and presentations from the two rounds of hearings — the Portfolio Committee after the President remitted the Bills in 2020, and the provincial legislature hearings run by the National Council of Provinces in 2023.
- Presentation of the Senior Counsel Opinion to Parliament, August 2020The slide presentation explaining the section 79(1) referral process and the President’s reservations to the Portfolio Committee — how a remitted Bill is handled, what the Committee…
- The dtic’s Background Document on the Remitted Bills, August 2020The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s background briefing to the Portfolio Committee after the President remitted the Bills — the purpose of the Copyright Amendment Bill…
- Procedural Reservations on the Bills — Presentation to ParliamentThe parliamentary legal adviser’s presentation on the President’s procedural reservations about the Copyright and Performers’ Protection Amendment Bills — the argument that the Bills…
- Presentation to the Provincial Legislature Public Hearings, 2023The presentation given at the 2023 provincial legislature public hearings on the Copyright Amendment Bill, walking through why the 1978 Copyright Act is out of date, what the Bill…
- Provincial Call for Written Submissions on the Bills, 2023The Northern Cape Provincial Legislature’s invitation to writers, producers, musicians, photographers, broadcasters, unions and others to make written submissions on the Copyright…
Background research and reference
Studies, papers and international material that recur in the debate about fair use in South Africa.
- Klaaren: The Copyright Amendment Bill in 2020 — Diversions, Debates and the Cost of DelayProfessor Jonathan Klaaren’s Wits Open Access Day talk on where the Copyright Amendment Bill stood at the end of 2020 — whether the Bill itself became a diversion from fixing the…
- South Africa’s Post-Hearing Submission to the USTR on AGOA and CopyrightThe Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s submission to the United States Trade Representative in the annual review of South Africa’s eligibility for AGOA benefits…
- Genesis Analytics: Assessment of the Regulatory Proposals on the IP Policy FrameworkThe economic impact assessment prepared by Genesis Analytics for the Department of Trade and Industry on the regulatory proposals in South Africa’s intellectual property policy…
- WIPO: Report on the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, July 2024ReCreate’s notes from the report-back on the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights at the 2024 Assemblies — which member states spoke, the additional sessions on…
- WIPO: Information Session on Generative AI and Copyright (SCCR/45/5)The Secretariat’s proposed outline for the WIPO information session on generative artificial intelligence and copyright, held during the 45th session of the Standing Committee in…