Copyright Legislation:

The legislation in place in Namibia is called the Namibian Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Protection A ct, Act 6 of 1994- The 1994 Act was amended in 2001 and the process is still ongoing. The plan is to finalise the amendments by the middle of this year and have it tabled in Parliament before the end of the current fi nancial year. *"

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is the custodian of the Copyright Act. The Directorate Audiovisual Media and Copyright Services deals with the day-to-day activities related to copyright issues,

Namibia has been a member to the Bern Convention 1886, for the Protection of Literary and Artistic works. This has been possible through Germany, as the country was under the German rule that time. Namibia is signatory to the two WIPO Internet Treaties namely; WCT and WPPT of 1996. We will definitely accede to the two afore-mentioned treaties as soon as the Copyright Bill had been passed in Parliament, We have also acceded to the TRIPS Agreement, the process of which is spearheaded by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The recognition and protection of traditional knowledge and expression of folklore was 8ne of the motives behind the amendments of the 1994 Act However, it was not an easy exercise for both the line Ministry, the Legal Drafters as well as the concerned stakeholders to reach a common consensus concerning the protection of folklore, more especially with regards to the sharing of benefits accruing from the usage of such works. The eventual resolution that appeared to have somehow, met the wishes of all concerned was to place the work in question under the custodianship of the Competent Authority i.e. the Hon. Minister of Information and Broadcasting.

So far, all the proposed legislative changes to the 1994 Act have been incorporated into the current Amendment Bill,

However, we are also studying various proposals and recommendations from our international stakeholders such as IERMO and DALRO (an RSA RRO).

Right of Reproduction;

Reproduction of protected works is permitted under Section 12 of the current Bill provided that such reproduction is not in conflict with normal exploitation of works and is not unreasonably prejudicial to the legitimate interests of the owner of the copyright.

There is no special stipulation in relation to the reproduction of reprographic works under the current Act.

Section 11 (1) (a) makes provision for the use of protected works, provided that such practice is for the purposes of private use such as research or private study.

Section 11 (1) stipulates that copyright will notfeeinfringed bf;"fair baling" in the use of literary works except the use of computer programs or musical works. Pair cte^ittf may include:

* criticism

* reporting on current events

* using the in judicial proceedings

* quoting (reasonably from office work

Collective Management of Rights:

Section 59 provides for the estafelishrnent of collective management organizations. Such organisations must be recognized by the Hon. Minister of Information and Broadcasting prior to the commencement of their respective operations .as stipulated under Section 60. Section 61 compels managers of collective management organizations to be accountable to their respective members and stakeholders.

The Namibiaa Government has taken a resolution not to intervene in the affairs of the collective management organisation, whatsoever. The only role played by the Governmentis the allocation of resources such as human resources and the provision of logistic support towards the establishment of such organisations,

Relevant Government bodies related to the existing collective management organisations play an advisory role towards collective management organisations where necessary. All such organisations are autonomous bodies governed by independently elected Boards of Directors. There is absolutely no control over the collective management organisations by the Government

The Ministry of Trade and Industry administers the Competition law in Namibia. However, there have been no recorded cases of gross violation of this legislation in relation to the collective management of rights.

There are two collective management organisations in existence in Namibia at the moment, NASCAM, which was established in 1994 with technical, material and financial support from WIPO, CISAC and SAMRO (RSA), deals with collective management of musical works only. It has a current membership of 1560. Its revenue collection for the 2005 Financial Year amounted te N$2,144 687.00 (US$282 197). A total amount of NS220 076.00 (US$28 958) was distributed to both local and sister organisation members for the first distribution period. The second distribution is expected at the end of the current Financial Year, NASCAM is immensely involved with the enforcement activities such as the combating of Piracy. They do this in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies such as the Namibiari Police, Customs and Excise and Immigration. Most of these operations are carried out; with financial and logistic support from UNESCO. ^

A second collective management organisation NAMRRO was established at the beginning of 2006 and it was officially launched by the Hon. Minister of Information and Broadcasting on 18 September 2006 in Windhoek. The launching coincided with a four-day training workshop on Piracy sponsored by UNESCO's Windhoek Cluster Office. It is ray pleasure to mention, once again, that the establishment of NAMRRO could not have been a reality was it not for the kind consideraiion of UNESCO, IFRRO and DALRO, who provided every thing one needs to start an RRO.

Print and Publishing Market In Namibia:

There are over 25 publishing companies in Namibia including the Government printing house, It is very difficult to establish the number of titles published per year as not all publishers are affiliates of the Association of Namibian Publishers (ANP) where facts and figures about such information could be obtained,

There are about 18 local newspapers, periodical and magazines that are registered with the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), six of which are dailies, printed in Afrikaans, English and German. The rest are either weekly or monthly newspapers.

The publishing of scientific journals normally happens in the two institutions of higher learning namely; the Universityof Namibia {TJNAM) and the Polytechnic of Namibia.

Educational Systems and Relevant Institutions:

At independence in 1990, Namibia had done away with the old Cape Education which was introduced to the country by the former South African regime. The current education system in place is the British Cambridge system which was introduced shortly after inde|