Intellectual Property in the CCIs - Report

Overview

This discussion paper has argued that it is important to maintain a view of South Africa as having both Global North and Global South conditions, that is both highly developed world and highly undeveloped paradigms. This context requires more nuanced – rather than one-size-fits-all – policy interventions. In addition, the unequal playing ground between developed and developing countries, as well as the enormous social and economic disparities within developing countries, have presented tensions that have run through this paper. In terms of copyright an example would be access to knowledge versus creators rights, in the case of IKS the imperative to protect indigenous culture versus commercializing and monetizing cultural expressions. It seems clear that a core question is how policy might address the formal, legal and infrastructural development of the CCIs while supporting access to culture for all? A key consideration here is the balance between the formal and informal sectors, and finding ways to develop and support the informal sectors (which so many in the country rely on) rather than only focus on the formal sectors, which may advantage large local corporations and pander to foreign business interests at the expense of guaranteeing access to the production and consumption of arts and culture for the masses.

Based on the analysis in this paper, it seems that the DAC, the DTI and the DS&T are aware of the need to strike a balance of rights between creators and consumers and should be recognized for maintaining a commitment to this balance. However, the concurrent policy focus on the CCIs as an economic driver suggests that emphasis on formalizing IP laws in ways that primarily benefit large corporations, and indeed attempt to attract FDI by acquiescing to international demands of international bodies like WIPO who do not necessarily hold dear the status of social justice in the countries they do business with. South Africa would do well to learn from the analyses and critiques emerging from the Global North around the impact of CCI focused arts policies (which are emerging two decades after the initial ‘buzz’ around CCIs) and work to mitigate against the socially detrimental effects of gentrification and deepening socio-economic divisions that such policies may engender or at least leave unquestioned. While IP laws and copyright remain important ways to protect cultural expressions from exploitation and to formalize the creative sectors, as a country that remains faced with such deep levels of social justice redress, South Africa would do well to maintain an equal emphasis on the human, social and economic dimensions of development. If South African can pioneer a more nuanced policy, one that locates it between the Global North and Africa for example, taking both into account and not imposing one regime on circumstances that militate against this, this might become a model for the world. It might help to respond to the question of what might be “realistic” IP regimes in Global South/African conditions, where there may be room for ambivalence/ambiguity as for example in Nigeria where a deal has been struck between film producers and the piracy industry allowing the producers two weeks to recoup their costs before the pirates go into action.

In closing, avenues for further research could include: i) ‘rethinking copyright’ within a hybrid context and considering what imperatives related to copyright that might need to be considered to for a country that requires social, human and economic development as well as social justice redress; ii) South Africa’s potential cultural imperialism within in Africa, given its propensity as one of the dominant economic forces on the continent to exercise soft power and contribute to cultural hegemony and iii) possibilities for counter narratives to Global North cultural dominance through the strengthening of relations between BRICS countries and through the networks of socio-cultural and cultural/ economic exchange and relations between African countries (here one could consider not only how might we learn from each-other on a policy front, but how might a shared vision of an empowered Africa and Global South be articulated through art and culture).