Internet Governance Forum 15 to 18 November 2009 Access to Knowledge in Egypt : A Case Study by the ACA2K Presented by Dr. Perihan Abou Zeid Lecturer at the Faculty of Legal Studies and International Relations Pharos University

 The African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) research was initiated in 2007 with the objective to probe the nexus between national copyright environments and access to knowledge with respect to educational and learning materials. More than 30 experts are engaged in the study which covers eight African countries: Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.  The ACA2K methodology can be briefed into two phases: - Research Phase: Doctrinal Analysis and Qualitative Analysis. - Policy Engagement and Dissemination Phase: Identifying key stakeholders and disseminate the study’s findings to them.  Disseminating ACA2K findings to WIPO’s CDIP in April 2009 and SCCR in May 2009, and the forthcoming SCCR in December 2009.

B- A2K Environment in Egypt:  Copyrights is organized and governed in Book 3 of the Intellectual Property Rights Act number 182 for the year Copyright Holders’ Rights:  Egypt is a Civil Law country and both moral rights and economic rights of copyright-holders are protected. Moral Rights:  Moral rights are perpetual, inalienable, and imprescriptible. Economic Rights:  The law prohibits any form of exploitation of the work without obtaining the approval of the holder, such as: reproduction, broadcasting, re-broadcasting, public performance, public communication, translation, adaptation, rental, lending or making the work available to the public in any manner. The duration of protection is 50 years that starts from the death of the author.

A - Educational Purposes: - The law numbers few E&L related to education such as: 1)Performing the work within an educational institution. 2)Reproducing short extracts from a work for teaching purposes, provided that: a) reproduction is within reasonable limits, b) the name of the author and the title of the work are mentioned. 3)Reproduction for teaching purposes in educational institutes, of an article or a short work provided that: reproduction is made once or at different separate occasions; and the name of the author and the title of the work are mentioned on each copy. - The law does not tackle digital learning with any specific provisions.

 The law allows compulsory licenses for education purposes by applying to the competent ministry in order to reproduce, translate, or both, any protected work. They are restricted with specific conditions: a)Educational purposes. b)Against payment of fair compensation. c)If such a licence does not contradict the normal exploitation of the work and does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author or the copyright-holders.

B- Photocopying for Personal Use: CONDITIONS: a)It should be a single copy. b)For one’s exclusive personal use. c)It does not hamper the normal exploitation of the work nor cause undue prejudice to the legitimate interests of the author or copyright-holders.  This exception is not applicable to computer programmes as prior authorisation should always be obtained from the copyright holder of the CP. PRACTICE:  Practice shows that the personal use exception is directly affected with library photocopying quota policies.

 The law allows translating the work to the Arabic language where the author does not translate the protected work directly or through a third party to Arabic within 3 years of the first publication of the original or translated work. In such case the author’s right to translate the work shall lapse.

D- Libraries and Archives: The law permits documentation centres, archives and non-profit libraries to make one single copy of a work in the following cases:  Reproduction is made upon a request made by a natural person for using in study or research.  Reproduction is made for the purpose of preserving or substituting an original copy.  The law does not tackle public lending rights. PRACTICE:  Investigated libraries were found to apply restrictive policies that affect access to works in general whether protected or not such as: banning or restricting borrowing – quota photocopying schemes – and the over protection of audiovisual materials.

E- People with Disability: The law does not tackle or provide any special provisions regarding people with disability such as the visually impaired. This means that activities related to converting protected materials to formats accessible to these individuals (e.g., Braille or audio formats) can only be done with express permission of the rights-holder. PRACTICE:  Investigated libraries have special sections for the blind.  Technologies specifically designed to assist disabled people are often unaffordable and remain highly protected with Technological Protection Measures.

3- Public Domain: The law requires obtaining a licence for any commercial or professional exploitation of such works for fees that are set out in the Regulations. 4- Parallel Imports: Parallel imports of copyright protected materials are permitted under Egyptian law without any restrictions where the copyright owner undertakes to exploit or market his work in any state or authorise a third party to do so.

The law tackles protection of computer programmes (CPs) with special rules.  The Executive Regulations indicates that quotations from computer software must be used only for non-commercial purposes or for the purpose of education or training.  The legitimate owner of a CP is allowed to make a single copy or an adaptation of his/her CP provided it remains within the limits of the purpose for which consent was initially granted, for archiving purposes or to replace a lost, destroyed or invalid original copy.

 Anti-circumvention provisions are included within the law which is considered highly protective to Technological Protection Measures (TPMs).  The law forbids through fines and imprisonment the manufacturing, assembling or importing any device or tool or any technology that aims to circumvent any technological protection measures that include information and communication technologies (ICTs).

 The anti-circumvention provisions may have a negative impact on accessing learning materials in Egypt because they restrict access to copyrighted material.  The anti-circumvention provisions are not only applicable to copyrighted materials but to non copyrighted ones.  Technological protection measures do not allow users to apply the previous exceptions and limitations which may affect the balance between the interests of rights- holders and users which copyright laws try to achieve.

1.Broad protection of author’s economic rights: - The legitimate owner of a copyrighted material can not lend it without obtaining the prior authorization of the copyright holder. - Despite that article 11 of the TRIPS agreement restricts the rental rights on computer programs and cinematographic works for commercial use. However, the law extends the rights to prevent renting to all kinds of works and for all types of commercial as well as non-commercial uses.

2. Absence of copyright exceptions and limitations that are specifically dealing with distance learning, people with disability and ICTs. 3. Restricting the application of exceptions with conditions that are not required by international agreements. 4. Access is restricted with other factors apart from copyrights such as photocopying quotas and banning borrowing schemes. 5. Unpunished copyrights infringement is the main channel for A2K in Egypt. 6. More awareness, collaboration and participation of A2K is certainly needed.

Thank You!