Comply with copyright
What is copyright?
Copyright protects the rights in work of authors, performers, producers and broadcasters, and contributes to a country’s sustainable development goals. The purpose of copyright is twofold: to encourage a dynamic creative culture by rewarding and returning economic value to creators through limited property rights, and to provide for knowledge dissemination for the public’s benefit.
The South African Copyright Act
The South African Copyright Act 98 of 1978 governs and regulates all aspects of copyright in South Africa, which include the establishing of requirements for protection, authorship, ownership, and infringement and its exceptions. Copyright is territorial, meaning these rights are enforceable in South Africa only. For a work to be eligible for copyright protection the following must be presented:
Fall into the established categories of protected works
Originality
Material must be presented in a tangible form
Creator must be acknowledged by South African law as a legal persona
What is fair dealing?
In South Africa, the doctrine of fair dealing allows copyrighted works to be used for personal research and study, or criticism and review, or reporting on current events in a newspaper or magazine. Fair dealing allows for use of a single copy of a reasonable portion of the original work, without having to seek permission from the copyright owner. Fair dealing does not extend to the distribution of multiple copies of a copyrighted work in the teaching and learning environment.
Staff members that want to include third-party materials in teaching and learning content must do so in compliance with the terms and conditions in the SU General Copyright Guidelines under the provisions of SU’s Blanket Licence Agreement managed and administered by SU’s Copyright Office within the Innovation and Commercialisation Division (Innovus). Staff members may approach the Copyright Office to assist with obtaining the necessary licenses to enable the use of such copyright materials.
Questions and answers
Only course material that complies with the SU General Copyright Guidelines under the provisions of SU’s Blanket Licence Agreement will be accepted for placement in any of the libraries' short loan sections. For more information and to obtain a copy of these guidelines, contact SU’s Copyright Office.
Copyright ownership for work vests in SU for work created during the scope of SU employment, or work created by during study scope. For more information, see paragraph 2.2.2 and 3.2.2 of SU’s Policy on the Protection and Commercialisation of Intellectual Property of Stellenbosch University.
Students should engage with supervisors or faculty heads, and SU’s Copyright Office for approval to publish from assignments, theses and dissertations, in articles in accredited academic journals, chapters in peer reviewed or academic books, as part of the proceedings of an academic conference, as well as other types of publications. For more information, see paragraph 3.2.7 of SU’s Policy on the Protection and Commercialisation of Intellectual Property of Stellenbosch University.
For more information, contact SU’s Copyright Office.