News from abroad

NGOMBE Laurier Yvon

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Résumé

In the period from 2012 to 2014, several African States either enacted new copyright laws or introduced amendments, even if minor ones, to their existing laws in the field of literary and artistic property. A comparison of these laws is made regarding both the scope of protection and its implementation in order to highlight the similarities and differences between them. Some of the States in question are members of the African Intellectual Property Organisation (OAPI) and it is interesting to note generally the consistency of the adopted texts with the minimum requirements of the regional legislation. In the reported case law, decisions can be noted on issues as diverse as the unlawful dissemination of works on the Internet and the liability of technical intermediaries, the principle that ideas are not protected, the defence of authors’ rights by a collective management society in an international context and the remuneration of performing artists... In most of the reported cases, the national courts were dealing with the legal issues submitted to them for the first time. This makes their decisions particularly interesting because they testify to the progressive effectiveness of authors’ rights in Africa.

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