Access to knowledge in Africa - The role of copyright

• Author: Dick Kawooya
• Position: ACA2K Lead Researcher
• Pages: 24-24

FE BR UA RY 2 01 1

24

As a response to the critical need

for empirical research in this area,

the project undertook a compar-

ative study of eight African coun-

tries, namely, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya,

Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal,

South Africa and Uganda. These

countries are broadly representa-

tive of Africa’s linguistic, religious,

political, economic and historic

diversity, as well as its various le-

gal traditions.

From the outset the project was

geared towards practical, applied

research with a view to providing

“empirical evidence that could

con trib ute pos itiv ely tow ards

co pyr igh t ref orm p roce sse s

throughout the continent and in-

tern ation ally.” T he aim w as to

create a network of African re-

searchers who would gather evi-

dence about the impact of copy-

right on access to educational

and learning materials in the fea-

tured countries.

Researcher s relied on legal doc-

tri nal re view, qu ali tati ve data

ga the rin g and com par ati ve

analysis to test two hypo theses:

first, that the copyright env iron-

ments in the countri es s tudied

curr ently do not maxi mize ac-

cess to knowledge contained in

learning mater ials; second, that

changes can be made t o these

cou ntri es’ cop yrig ht e nviro n-

ments t o improve access. The

boo k hig hligh ts so me of the

most significant findin gs of the

researc h p roject. It is intend ed

as a c oncrete contribution to

the understa nding of the legal

and practical effect s of copy-

right on a ccess to learnin g ma-

terials in Af rica, and as a possible

model for futu re empirica l re-

search in suppor t of evidence-

based po licymaking in this area .

The research revealed that all

eig ht co untr ies s tudie d hav e

copyright laws that meet, an d in

many cases e xceed, the mini-

mum inter national standar ds re-

flected in applicable international

ins trume nts a nd ag reemen ts.

Findings revealed that no coun-

try stud ied takes advant age of

all, or even most of, the flexibili-

ties that exist in releva nt i nter-

national agreemen ts. The study

also hig hlights a “disconnect”

be twe en n ati ona l co pyr igh t

laws and on-t he-ground prac-

tices in all the countr ies studied.

It found that laws an d policies

gov ernin g cop yrig ht in most

African cou ntries are typical ly

not grounded in the realities of

African societies and are largely

crafted wit hout sufficient emp ir-

ical ev idence.

The bo ok gives the reader an

understan ding o f the legal and

practica l c opyright issues asso-

ciated with acc essing lear ning

materials in Africa. It offer s an in-

depth examination of copyright

and access issues arising in each

of the countr ies studied and a

comparati ve analysis of findings

acr oss t he cou ntri es st udied .

It is hoped that the insights and

lessons drawn from the study

wil l su ppor t po licy make rs i n

implement ing th e WIPO Devel-

opment A genda, as wel l as con-

tribute to intern ational disc us-

sions relating to exceptions a nd

limitatio ns u nder international

copyright law.

1 *AC A2K Lead

Researcher. Email:

kawooya@uwm. edu

ACCESS TO

KNOWLEDGE

IN AFRICA

The role of copyright

“Even those who consider themselves experts on

IP will benefit immensely from this book and the

broader ACA2K project’s work.”

Sisule Musungu, President, IQsensato, Geneva

“Access to Knowledge

in Africa: the role of

copyright” can be

downloaded free-of-

charge at:

www.aca2k.org

and is licensed under

a Creative Commons

license.

In this article, Dick Kawooya,1prese nts the recen tly published book

Access to Knowledge i n Africa: T he Role

of Copy right

. The internation al interdisc iplinary re search proj ect known as African Copyright and Acces s

to Knowl edge (ACA2K) started in 2 008 with supp ort from the International Development Research

Centre (IDRC) o f Canada and th e Shuttlew orth Found ation of South A frica. Its primary objective was to

examine the impact of copyright on access to knowledg e in Africa .