Coverage of the Copyright Amendment Bill, the Constitutional Court case and the
campaign for fair use — ours and other people’s. For interviews and comment, write to
recreateza@gmail.com.
Featured · MyBroadband · 27 July 2026
America tried to interfere in South African copyright law
Cory Doctorow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation tells Trevor Noah how the United States
threatened South Africa’s trade benefits to keep fair use — an American doctrine — out
of South African law. Jan Vermeulen sets out the full record, from the 2019 petition to the
Constitutional Court’s judgment last month.
More coverage and background
- Constitutional Court upholds fair use — but sends the Bills back to ParliamentOur report on the 26 June 2026 judgment, with links to the full text.
- ReCreate’s statement on the judgment13 July 2026 — what we welcome, what we are disappointed by, and what should happen next.
- How Washington and Brussels pressured South Africa to delay copyright reformPOLITICO, June 2020 — internal European Commission documents on the lobbying.
- FOIA: 311 pages of USTR–industry correspondence on the BillKnowledge Ecology International — the paper trail behind the trade threats.
- Copyright Amendment Bill in the press (2023)Coverage round-up.
- Press coverage archive: 2019–2020The trade-threat years, as reported at the time.
- Video archive: marches, indabas and debatesFootage from the campaign.
Looking for everything we publish? See
news & media,
statements and the
legal archive.
Watch: our video archive — 23 films, panels and conference recordings.