A Right to Research in Africa?

Monday, 23 January |  Pretoria Conference Centre (Sanlam Auditorium)

09.00 – 09.30    Welcome and Introductions

• Professor Tawana Kupe, Vice Chancellor, University of Pretoria
• Dr. Carlos Correa, Executive Director, South Centre

Format of panels
Each panel will be led by a moderator who will ask each panelist to comment for a maximum of 5-6 minutes on a first question or two (noted below). A roundtable discussion will then allow each speaker and the discussants to add additional issues into the discussion.

09.30 – 11.20    Session 1: Digital Research Tools - What’s Happening in Africa?

From Cape Town to Casablanca, African researchers are using technology to access, analyze and make use of digital materials, including those protected by copyright. Using computational methods they can reach vast new audiences in African languages and they can ask complex and pressing questions that face the continent. What problems do African researchers seek to address and where do they find the data?

• Chair: Ben Cashdan, Executive Producer, Big Debate South Africa
• Director, Black Stripe Foundation. Co-Founder ReCreate South Africa
• The Masakhane case study of Text and Data Mining: Why did researchers use Jehovas Witness bibles to train translation tools, and what was the response from the publishers?
  Kathleen Siminyu, Masakhane, Kenya

How can Natural Language Processing and computational methods help to get accurate information to underserved communities in African Languages? What happens when researchers try to translate news websites and government information?

• Prof. Vukosi Marivate, Chair Data Sciences, University of Pretoria (UP) From Senegal to France and back: Can African researchers access Academic Publications in Africa to do advanced and comparative research?
• Prof. Abdou Beukeu Sow, Head of Documentary Information Department, University of Dakar, Senegal

Is there a Climate Copyright Catastrophe when it comes to understanding climate change and supporting farmers? When data providers erect paywalls, what can be done?

• Dr John Olukuru, iLab Africa, Strathmore University, Kenya

How has the constitutional court judgment in South Africa cleared the way for Text to Speech technology to be used for Visually Impaired people?

• Christo de Klerk, Vice President BlindSA

Discussants:

• Betsy Muriithi, Research Fellow, iLabAfrica, Kenya
• Dr Angeline Wairegi, Senior Researcher, CIPIT, Kenya

11.40 – 13.30    Session 2: Does Africa Have a Right to Research in Law?

Every copyright law in the world has at least one limitation or exception that permits uses of protected works for a “research,” “scientific,” or “private” purpose. But many of these exceptions were drafted in the pre-digital period and fail to enable modern research technologies. Many African countries are currently amending their copyright laws, partly to tailor them to the digital environment. Where are current African copyright laws flexible enough to enable modern research needs? Where is further reform needed to promote innovation, access to knowledge and development through research?

• Chair: Prof. Malebakeng Forere, Associate Professor in Law, University of Witwatersrand

How open are research exceptions in Africa compared to other regions of the world? What is the impact of these exceptions as shown in the empirical literature?

• Prof. Sean Flynn, PIJIP Director American University Washington College of Law

What rights do researchers from the Masakhane Case Study have to use the Jehovah’s Witnesses corpus to train natural language processing tools?

• Dr Melissa Omino, Acting Director, Centre For Intellectual Property And Information Technology Law (CIPIT), Strathmore University, Nairobi

How are research exceptions similar and different in Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana?

• Chebet Koros, Senior Researcher, CIPIT

What is the right to research in International and South African human rights law? What are the implications for copyright exceptions in Africa?

• Dr Sanya Samtani, SARCHI Chair, International and Constitutional Law, University of Pretoria (UP)

What principles should guide African governments in realising the Right to Research in Africa?

• Dr Chijioke Okorie, Centre for Intellectual Property Law, UP

How is the new Brazilian government proposing to protect the right to research through copyright exceptions in relation to Artificial Intelligence and TDM?

• Prof. Allan Rocha, Federal University of Rio De Janeiro

Discussants:

• Cynthia Nzuki, Research Assistant, CIPIT, Kenya
• Dr Andrew Rens, Senior Researcher, ICT Africa
• Klaus Beiter, NorthWest University (TBC)

14.50 – 16.50    Session 3: African Leadership on Copyright and the Public Interest

In international and domestic fora, African policy-makers are promoting legal and policy reform to ensure that copyright promotes the public interest. These reforms include measures to ensure both that creators are fairly compensated and that users can research, educate, and innovate to the benefit of the public at large. What reforms are African policy-makers promoting internationally at WIPO and domestically that promote the interests of researchers, the libraries and other institutions that serve them, and their audiences including students, other researchers, and the public at large.

• Chair: Dr. Viviana Muñoz-Tellez, Programme Coordinator, South Centre

How is Africa leading the discussions on copyright and development in WIPO, including on issues of copyright limitations and exceptions and on the protection of traditional knowledge?

• Mohamed Bakir, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Algeria to UNOG (tbc)
• Georges-Rémi Namekong, Minister-Counsellor, Permanent Delegation of the African Union in Geneva
• Prof. Chidi Oguamanam, Research Chair in Sustainability Bio-Innovation, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Global Knowledge Governance, University of Ottawa

How are African countries reforming domestic copyright laws to serve the public interest?

• Dr. John Asein, Director General, Nigerian Copyright Commission
• Ms. Sharon Chahale Wata, Assistant Executive Director, Legal & Technical Affairs Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO)
• Elizabeth Nyagura, Deputy Director General, Zimbabwe Intellectual Property Office (ZIPO)

Discussants:

• Professor Joseph Fometeu, University of Ngaoundéré, Cameroon
• Jace Nair, CEO BlindSA

16.50 – 17.45    Final Questions and Closing Statements

18.00 – 21.00    Artists Unite Reception

Featuring a rare performance by renowned South African vocalist, Marah Louw and messages from South African creatives.

Tuesday, 24 January    University of Pretoria Conference Centre (Sanlam Auditorium)    

09.00 – 10.30    Session 4.1: Public Resources Create Public Information | preferred copyright licenses

There is global awareness that where public resources are used to create knowledge the outputs should be considered public goods. This has been a part of the struggle for access to medicines and forms part of the law in some countries. How do we realise this objective in South Africa and Africa through changes in policy and practice and can it be assisted by copyright reforms or simply by using a more open copyright license?

• Chair: Douglas Ian Scott, Wikimedia South Africa
• Prof. Vukosi Marivate, Chair Data Sciences, University of Pretoria
• Dr Chijioke Okorie, Centre for Intellectual Property Law, UP
• Video introduction by Jan-David Franke, Wikimedia
• Germany / WMDE    

Session 5: Policymakers Roundtable (Invitation only)

09:00 - 12:30

Chair: Dr. Viviana Muñoz-Tellez,
Programme
Coordinator, South
Centre

10.30 – 11.00    Session 4.2: Public Resources Create Public Information | Open data and the importance of open copyright for structured data (databases)

Data is becoming an ever more important resource for modern society. Despite this, researchers in South Africa experience difficulties in accessing data to further the public good. Many researchers in South Africa experience great difficulty accessing structured data, what do these difficulties look like and how can they be overcome? This session will try to answer these questions by looking at efforts to track the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa.

• Chair: Douglas Ian Scott, Wikimedia South Africa

From Isindebele to Covid19- Public data should be public

• Prof. Vukosi Marivate, Chair Data Sciences, University of Pretoria
• Dr Chijioke Okorie, Centre for Intellectual Property Law, UP

11.40 – 13.30    Session 6: BlindSA Workshop and Launch

What will be the impact of the judgement in the Constitutional Court in South Africa which amended the copyright law to support access to works by visually impaired people? Members and supporters of BlindSA reflect on the judgement and launch a guide for its implementation.

Implications of the Constitutional Court Judgement in South Africa which declared the Copyright Act unconstitutional.

• Dr Sanya Samtani, Advisor, Section 27 & BlindSA

Reflections on the Marrakesh Treaty

• Jace Nair, CEO BlindSA

Barriers to Blind Persons Right to Research

• Christo de Klerk, Vice President, BlindSA
• Claudia van Resburg, BlindSA    

14.50 – 16.50    Session 7: Making the Copyright Amendment Bill work in South Africa

Over ten years in the making, South Africa’s new copyright law is built around two core principles: Fair Royalties and Fair Use. The journey hasn’t been easy, with opposition from those with an interest in the status quo. The law is supported by a broad coalition of creators and civil society groups. Come to this session to hear more about the CAB and how you can get involved in South Africa and across the world.

• Chair:Unathi Ndiki, Organiser, Right2Know
• Jack Devnarain, Chairman, South African Guild of Actors (SAGA)
• South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) tbc.
• Kyla Mc Nulty, Artist Manager & ReCreate Convener
• Ben Cashdan, Producer The Big Debate, Director, Black Stripe Foundation
• Jace Nair, CEO, BlindSA
• Douglas Scott, Wikimedia South Africa

16.00 – 17.30    Visit to Union Buildings; Photocalls