Monica Seeber | What is an author worth in South Africa
, poorly conceptualised and drafted, and not backed by policy, has pitted authors and book publishers against educational institutions – as if copyright law is bound to favour one at the expense of the other – instead of weighing the rights of copyright owners against the interests of society and creating a balance between them.
You may well ask what that is supposed to mean, but an acrimonious discourse has developed and it has come to mean that unless the law is changed to allow schools and universities to photocopy textbooks, pupils and students will be denied an education. The textbook market will collapse, publishers will close and South Africa will have to rely on imports.
Of course, the ripple effects go much further and the local book publishing industry faces an eventual decline when the book is devalued. From the authors’ perspective, it seems as if we are teetering on the edge of a precipice, and we have to ask: What are we worth?
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