Page:Copyright Act 1978 from Government Gazette.djvu/7

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Government Gazette, 30 June 1978
No. 609213

Copyright Act, 1978.
Act No. 98, 1978

(a)

sufficient effort or skill has been expended on making the work to give it a new and original character; and

(b)

the work has been written down, recorded or otherwise reduced to material form.

(3) A work shall not be ineligible for copyright by reason only that the making of the work, or the doing of any act in relation to the work, involved an infringement of copyright in some other work.


Copyright by virtue of nationality, domicile or residence, and duration of copyright.

3. (1) Copyright shall be conferred by this section on every work, eligible for copyright, of which the author or, in the case of a work of joint authorship, any one of the authors is at the time the work or a substantial part thereof is made, a qualified person, that is―

(a)

in the case of an individual, a person who is a South African citizen or is domiciled or resident in the Republic; or

(b)

in the case of a juristic person, a body incorporated under the laws of the Republic:

Provided that a work of architecture erected in the Republic or any other artistic work in a building located in the Republic, shall be eligible for copyright, whether or not the author was a qualified person.

(2) The term of copyright conferred by this section shall be, in the case of―

(a)

literary or musical works or artistic works, other than photographs, the life of the author and fifty years from the end of the year in which the author dies;

(b)

cinematograph films and photographs, fifty years from the end of the year in which the work is lawfully made available to the public or, failing such an event within fifty years from the making of the work, fifty years from the end of the year in which the work is made;

(c)

sound recordings, fifty years from the end of the year in which the recording is first published;

(d)

broadcasts, fifty years from the end of the year in which the broadcast first takes place;

(e)

programme-carrying signals, fifty years from the end of the year in which the signals are emitted to a satellite.

(3) (a) In the case of anonymous or pseudonymous literary, musical or artistic works, the copyright therein shall subsist for fifty years from the end of the year in which the work is lawfully made available to the public or from the end of the year in which it is reasonable to presume that the author died, whichever term is the shorter.

(b)

In the event of the identity of the author becoming known before the expiration of the period referred to in paragraph (a), the term of protection of the copyright shall be calculated in accordance with the provisions of subsection (2).

(4) In the case of a work of joint authorship the reference in the preceding subsections to the death of the author shall be taken to refer to the author who dies last, whether or not he is a qualified person.


Copyright by reference to country of origin.

4. (1) Copyright shall be conferred by this section on every work which is eligible for copyright and which―

(a)

being a literary, musical or artistic work or a sound recording, is first published in the Republic;

(b)

being a broadcast, is made in the Republic;

(c)

being a programme-carrying signal, is emitted to a satellite from a place in the Republic; or

(d)

being a cinematograph film, is first published or made in the Republic,

and in respect of which copyright is not conferred by section 3.