Publishers’ association of south africa

MARCH 2001

INTRODUCTION
The Publishers’ Association of South Africa (PASA) is the national association representing book publishers (print and electronic) in South Africa. It is affiliated to the International Publishers Association, the world body for publishers, and represents some 140 publishing companies, the substantial majority of publishers in the country. Membership ranges from large multinational companies to a large number of small businesses.
The publishing industry globally is one of the first industries to be affected by developments in electronic commerce. The dissemination of information on the Internet, e-publishing and the development of e-books is all of vital concern to the publishing industry. South Africa will need to position itself effectively if it is to maintain its global competitiveness in this regard. From the perspective of e-commerce and trading on the Internet, the sale of books is one of the key e-commerce industries globally and one of the first to take off.
How realistic is the prospect of e-books in an African context, where we suffer from a lack of availability of hardware, poor bandwidth, expensive telecommunications, and the lack of a reading culture? It seems possible for South Africa to jump the technology gap and necessary to do so, if we are not to be marginalized by the ‘digital divide’. South Africa is high in the Internet usage stakes, unlike the rest of Africa and has 90% of the continent’s Internet users.

In a country in which markets are very thinly spread, the ability to use electronic networks to disseminate information should prove a major advantage, particularly in the education sector. It is anticipated that there will be rapid developments in electronic publishing in the academic sector, where digitized content storage and print-on-demand at remote sites are set to open up the potential for distance education to many more students.

It is possible that, in many markets, the availability of electronic content, provided through regional, communal file servers, would solve a number of distribution problems in remote areas. The prospect of widely available computer access in private homes and even in institutions, is remote, given the problems of electricity supply and telecommunications access. However, it would be feasible, particularly in the education sector, to have community centres spread across the country, within reasonable reach of users. There are a number of such projects under discussion, or being developed. On the technical front, it is of major concern to PASA that Internet access be made easier, quicker and cheaper. The full benefits of electronic information distribution will only be felt fully by users and businesses if Telkom makes access cheaper than it is currently. The implementation of new technologies like ADSL and XDSL would offer substantial advantages to content users (including education providers) and content providers (particularly, small businesses). Currently, Internet access in South Africa is one of the most expensive in the world. It is therefore vital that Telkom and any privatised companies that enter the telecommunications field are encouraged to implement new technologies as quickly as possible.

Electronic media show signs of opening new niches for entrepreneurs and self-publishers. The Internet is already changing people’s mindsets of what authorship means and what publishing means. This is in part because the new media do offer new possibilities for the success of the small player, and for self-publishing. This could mean that there would be enhanced possibilities for the development of new authors and new creativity. Short-run printing of quality is now also an option. So authors and publishers are no longer bound by the expensive imperative of having to sell 2 000 or 3 000 books, in order for a publication to be viable.

PASA welcomes the government’s intervention in the field of electronic commerce and hopes that the initiative represented by the publication of the Green Paper on Electronic Commerce will result in effective collaboration between all the Ministries involved in the different aspects of e-commerce so that South Africa can move forward effectively into a new business era.
Issues discussed herein include:

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  Copyright
  

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  Fair Dealing
  
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  Reproduction Right
  
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  Communication to the Public Right
  
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  Obligations concerning technological Measures
  
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  Copyright Management
  
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  Databases and the Database Right
  
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  Moral Rights
  
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  International Law Enforcement and Evidence
  
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  Contractual Solutions
  
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  Framing
  
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  Hyperlinking
  

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  Non-Copyright e-Publishing Issues
  

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  Customer Privacy
  
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  Telkom’s Monopoly
  
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  Electronic Criminal law
  
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  Contracts
  
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  Taxation