Can national copyright laws in Southern Africa promote access to teaching and learning materials?

Authors:

Desmond Oriakhogba and Lonias Ndlovu

Summary:

The UN sustainable development goal (SDG) 4 stipulates measures and actions required of state parties towards achieving inclusive and equitable quality education for all and the promotion of lifelong learning. The availability of, and access to, quality and affordable teaching and learning materials (TLM) are key requirements for the actualisation of SDG4. Most TLMs are copyright protected, with the effect that they are not readily accessible to socially and economically less-privileged learners, teachers and researchers. This has the spiralling effect of preventing the actualisation of SDG 4. Thus, the importance of a development-focused copyright regime cannot be overemphasised. A development-focused copyright regime is conceptualised as a framework that maintains equitable balance between the economic concerns of copyright owners and the interest of the public in the promotion of access to knowledge. This would usually be achieved through a bundle of exclusive economic rights that is matched by open-educational-use copyright exceptions. Adopting a doctrinal methodology, this chapter examines the nexus between SDG4 and copyright law in the Southern African context. It investigates barriers to achieving SDG4 in Southern Africa. In this regard, the chapter determined whether the existing national copyright laws in Southern Africa can support the attainment of SDG4. Using Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe as case studies, the chapter found that national copyright laws in Southern Africa cannot support the attainment of SDG4 in the sub-region. The chapter  recommends the formulation of development-focused copyright regimes to align national copyright laws with the SDG4 in Southern Africa.


Link to book chapter