The Copyright Amendment Bill and the Performers Protection Amendment Bill ensure that actors will never again be forced to sign away all their rights.
About the Copyright Amendment Bill
This Bill secures the economic content rights of performer,s and offers a realistic hope of allowing them to negotiate equitable contracts.
The scope is vast, and represents over half a million South Africans.
It includes writers, filmmakers, producers, photographers, actors, teachers, professors, students, learners, librarians, journalists, artists, poets, software developers, technology entrepreneurs, freedom of expression activists, disability activists, game developers, producers of accessible format materials, educational content producers and many other diverse South Africans.
In South Africa the law has not protected the interests of creatives, and many are systematically disempowered. This apartheid-era legislation favours historical and international monopolies which have control of money and power.
This power imbalance must end now.
Performers Protection Amendment Bill
There is currently a power imbalance between actors, and organisations who commission and fund audio-visual productions. The Performers Protection Amendment Bill, which will protect actors by enshrining among others, the following rights:
- Statutory Royalty Sharing, so that actors can be adequately compensated for their work.
- Ratification of the Beijing treaty which will defend the economic rights of actors.
Actors deserve their rightful place in the economy and to be protected by the Constitution that is celebrated as the most progressive in the world.