Copyright in South Africa runs the risk of becoming an endangered species and ultimately suffering the fate of the dinosaur. The reason for this unhappy state of affairs is that, like all species which have faded away into extinction in the past, it is failing to adapt to changed and ever changing circumstances. The blame for this must be laid squarely at the door of the government.
There have been several articles in the press in recent times describing the parlous state of the music and record industries in South Africa as a direct result of piracy and counterfeiting of CDs and tapes. The film industry and the computer software industry are not far behind and are essentially in the same boat. The publishing industry, with illegal photocopying of books being rife, is fast becoming a fellow traveller. The ineffectiveness of our current copyright laws and of their enforcement (the two are related) is the dominant contributing force to this unhappy state of affairs. Matters have
