The COVID-19 pandemic hit the world in an unprecedented manner and, in just a few months, it has had such a profound impact on the world of work. As a result, physical office premises were shut down and many employees were forced to work from home with little or no security policy in place or a viable data backup and recovery plan ...
The implementation of cybercrime legislation is a pressing issue given that South Africa has one of the highest numbers of cybercrime victims in the world. In addition, a number of unsuspecting individuals and organisations alike fell prey to the scourge of cyber scams which seemed to spike quite rapidly in the past year. The Cybercrime Bill was adopted by the Portfolio Committee for Justice and Correctional Services in November 2018 and sent to the National Assembly for debate ...
As Nigeria joins the rest of the world in grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic (“the pandemic”), the Federal Government has declared a curfew in the Federal Capital Territory and two other major States as well as restricting interstate travel. Prior to this, several organizations had commenced remote working as precautionary measures against the spread of the virus ...
Counterfeiting continues to make the news. Locally, we’ve just had a report of a R10 million bust in the Vereeniging area, during which fake soaps, shampoos, clothing and bags were seized, and seven suspects from Malawi, Mozambique and China (no surprises there), were taken into custody.But we are increasingly getting reports of counterfeiting in product areas that go way beyond the traditional stomping ground of FMCG and luxury goods ...
Termination of electricity supply due to non-payment of an electricity account A landlord may not, without a court order, terminate the supply of electricity to premises leased to a tenant who is in arrears with monthly electricity payments. This is according to the recent High Court judgment in the matter of Anva Properties CC vs End Street Enterprises CC (22109/2014, 14 April 2015) ...
Under South African corporate reorganisation rules, tax consequences are deferred and do not crystalise at the time of the transaction, but a carefully planned restructuring transaction may result in hardship due to subsequent events. A recently proposed amendment illustrates this risk.Tax relief under the existing corporate reorganisation rules may be neutralised if assets acquired in terms of these rules are disposed of within 18 months ...
Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus, the Bank of Mauritius has been closely monitoring its economic impact on the banking sector and the Mauritian economy. On 10 March 2020, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Mauritius reduced the key repo rate by 50 basis points to 2.85% per annum and on 13 March 2020, the Bank of Mauritius introduced a Support Programme to further assist Mauritian businesses across all economic sectors ...
World: The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted all destinations worldwide to introduce restrictions on travel, research by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has found. This represents the most severe restriction on international travel in history and no country has so far lifted restrictions introduced in response to the crisis. Following up on previous research, the latest data from the United Nations specialised agency for tourism shows that 100% of destinations now have restrictions in place ...
Remember Nirvana? There have been reports about an interesting copyright infringement case involving the grunge band Nirvana, a band that is still associated by many with frontman Kurt Cobain. Yet this case does not involve music copyright. Rather it deals with copyright in an artistic work, a drawing. How about Dante’s Inferno? The case has been brought by a lady called Jocelyn Susan Bundy. Bundy is the granddaughter of C.W. Scott-Giles, a heraldry expert who died in 1982 ...
The background can be summarised simply: South Africa’s state broadcaster, the SABC, commissioned a filmmaker to make an investigative documentary for its factual genre TV channel. The filmmaker made the documentary and the SABC paid the fee (thus making it the owner of the copyright in the documentary under South African law). However, the SABC decided against airing the documentary ...
In this article, we’ll discuss three copyright-related stories that have made headlines and contain some interesting lessons. ED SHEERAN (YES, AGAIN) We recently discussed the well-publicised case where Ed Sheeran successfully fought off a UK High Court copyright claim relating to his song Shape of You. When the verdict was announced, Sheeran said that he hoped that there would be no more “baseless” copyright claims ...
A South African judgment dealing with joint ownership of copyright in databases has recently come to light. The judgment was handed down almost a year ago, but it seems to have slipped under the radar. This judgment will, however, be of interest to those involved in IP.The case is The Philanthropic Collection (Pty) Ltd v Girls & Boys South Africa ...
We’ve written a fair bit about copyright recently, and much of our focus has been on how the digital age has brought about a marked change in attitude towards copyright (often bordering on ignorance), and has made copyright infringement much easier. In this article, we look at two further examples that reflect this trend. We also look at proposed changes to South African copyright law.The first of our examples deals with sharing images ...
Copyright protects a wide range of works. The first of the categories listed in the South African Copyright Act (“the Act”) is ‘literary works’. It is an unhelpful monitor, because literary merit does not come into it at all – the definition in the Act in fact uses the phrase ‘irrespective of literary quality’. The Act goes on to make it clear that works such as reports, tables and compilations are categorised under the term ‘literary works’ ...
A South African court has found that, for the purposes of fair dealing in copyright law, hyperlinks are a sufficient way of acknowledging source and ownership. The recent decision in the case of Moneyweb (Pty) Limited v Media 24 Limited and Another (unreported case no. 31575/2013, 5 May 2016) attracted a great deal of publicity. This is possibly because the two main parties are media companies ...
Two recent developments, one positive and one negative, highlight some of the serious issues that face copyright. The positive development is that UK courts have again shown that they are prepared to deal decisively with difficult copyright issues posed by the electronic age ...
Two recent high-profile cases involving popular songs have placed the spotlight on copyright issues. In the first of these, in California, a Los Angeles jury has decided that Led Zeppelin’s 1971 rock classic Stairway to Heaven did not infringe the copyright in a 1967 song called Spirit by the band Taurus. The case centred on the opening chord sequence in Stairway to Heaven, which the jury concluded was not “intrinsically similar” to the sequence in Spirit ...
The Taxation Laws Amendment Act, 31 of 2013 (the “TLAA”) introduced with effect from 1 April 2014, a new section 8F into the Income Tax Act, 58 of 1962 (the “Act”) in order to reduce the opportunity for the creation of equity instruments that are artificially disguised as debt instruments (“hybrid debt instruments”) ...
It is becoming increasingly easy for employees in the workplace to record conversations, meetings and disciplinary enquiries without the consent of the employer to do so. The advancement of cell phone technology makes it easy for employees to do so without anyone knowing simply by placing their cell phone in their jacket or trouser pocket or on a table in a meeting ...
Section 9D of the Income Tax Act, 1962 (the “Act”) is aimed at South African residents who directly or indirectly hold more than 50% of the total participation (broadly speaking shares) or voting rights in a foreign company. A foreign company in this context is classified as a controlled foreign company (“CFC”) ...
contingency fees VAT inclusive or exclusive The High Court, Gauteng Local Division, considered in a recent case (case No 2012/21359, 31 August 2016) whether an agreement in terms of which a legal practitioner charged contingency fees to a client under the Contingency Fees Act, No 66 of 1997 (the “CFA”), is valid ...
The recent Constitutional Court judgment inNational Director of Public Prosecutions v Botha N.O. and Anotherconsidered the issue of whether a proportionality analysis is required for the forfeiture of unlawful proceeds in terms of section 50(1)(b) of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, 1998 (“POCA”) ...
