Department of Public Law

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Browsing Department of Public Law by browse.metadata.advisor "De Ville, E. M."

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    Copyright law and the Internet : in modern South African law
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2000-09) Ital, Eric Guy; De Ville, E. M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Law. Dept. of Public Law.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Internet is coming more and more into focus of national and international legislation. Especially with regard to copyright law, the rapid growth of the Internet, its global character, its novel technical applications and its private and commercial use by millions of people makes the control over a work complicated and raises copyright problems all over the world. Present legislation is therefore challenged to avoid gaps in the law. Considering the rapid growth of online providers and users in South Africa, it is likely that copyright disputes with regard to the Internet will evolve here soon. In this dissertation, the "world" of the Internet and its lawfulness with regard to existing South African copyright law will be examined. The examination tries to establish whether South African copyright law is able to cope with the present Internet problems and whether it leads to reasonable results. The first chapter of this dissertation will give an overview of the basic principles of the Internet, including the history, development and function of the Internet. Furthermore the changing aspects by means of diqital technology will be discussed. Because the global character of the Internet lead to "international" infringements, governments are considering the prospect of reaching international accord on the protection of intellectual property in the digital era. In chapter two, the present international harmonisation of copyright law will be introduced. Especially the quick adoption of the World Intellectual Property Organisation Treaties in December 1996 demonstrated that an international realisation for a call for action is existing. In chapter three, the application of South African copyright law with regard to the Internet will be discussed. First, it will be examined if a digital work on the Internet is protected in the same way as a "traditional" work. Second, the various rights of the copyright holder are discussed in connection with the use of a work on the Internet. Third, the potential application of the exclusive rights of the copyright holder to various actions on the Internet, such as caching, Web linking and operating an online service will be discussed. The Internet is a worldwide entity, and, as such, copyright infringement on this system is an international problem. The scenario of global, simultaneous exploitation of works on the Internet conflicts sharply with the current system of international copyright protection, which is firmly based on national copyright laws with territorial effects. Section four provides therefore an overview of the applicable law on an international net and analyses the necessity and borders of protection.