1 Welcome to CopyrightX:UCT 1 Welcome to CopyrightX:UCT

Dear participant,

Welcome to CopyrightX:UCT.

CopyrightX:UCT is a member of the CopyrightX Community, a network of affiliated courses offered by several universities and other institutions between January and April of each year. Through a combination of pre-recorded lectures, readings, seminars, live webcasts, and online discussions, the participants in these courses examine and assess the ways in which law seeks to stimulate and regulate creative expression. Some of the conversations enabled by CopyrightX are small and limited to students in a single course, while others are global and engage the students in all of the affiliated institutions. CopyrightX was developed by Professor William Fisher at Harvard Law School; it is hosted and supported by the HarvardX distance-learning initiative, and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

CopyrightX:UCT is carried out in collaboration with Harvard Law School and consists of the CopyrightX pre-recorded lectures provided by Harvard, accompanied by reading materials relating to U.S. and South African copyright law. Weekly classroom seminars will discuss the pre-recorded lectures and will more closely analyse issues related to South African Copyright law. Particular attention will be drawn to the development aspects of copyright law.

Guidelines

H2O

The core tool for CopyrightX:UCT is called H2O where you will find the course structure and schedule, links to all pre-recorded Harvard lectures and a variety of supporting documents and readings. Please do familiarise yourself with the H2O platform before the course commences.

Lectures

Participants in CopyrightX:UCT are required to watch the prescribed Harvard pre-recorded lectures before each seminar. Links to these lectures are available on the H2O platform.

Reading material

Each lecture is accompanied by a list of prescribed reading materials related to U.S. and South African copyright law (articles, statutes and case law). These readings provide a better understanding of the underlying principles and will be used to discuss certain topics in more detail during the weekly in-class seminars. It is highly recommended that these materials be read before each seminar. Reading materials and other supporting documents are available on the H2O platform.

Seminars

Weekly seminars will take place at the University of Cape Town (Moot Court, Faculty of Law). During these seminars case studies and other copyright related issues will be discussed. Seminars will usually take place on Wednesday evenings from 18h00 to 19h30, commencing on 17 February 2016. Four double seminars will be from 18h00 to 20h00 (see calendar below).

Special Events

During the course, several special events will be organised by Harvard Law School. Live webcasts of these events can be streamed at copyx.org/live/ and will be made available on the CopyrightX website. The special events will be announced at the weekly Seminars.

Online discussion forum

The forum is available at forums.copyx.org. Credentials will be sent to you by Harvard.

Exam and certificate

A certificate of attendance (from UCT) and a certificate of participation (from Harvard) will be awarded to participants fulfilling the minimum attendance requirements of 80%. This means that a student must attend at least 7 (of which 3 double seminars) out of the 9 seminars.

In addition, participants will have the option to take an exam at the end of the course (currently scheduled between 27 April and 6 May 2016). The exam will consists of one or more questions derived from the Harvard Law School exam and one or more questions related to South African law. Participants will have 4 days to send the completed exam back to the CopyrightX:UCT convener for examination.

Harvard will award a CopyrightX Certificate if a participant passes the exam (50% or more) and fulfils the attendance requirements (80%).

The University of Cape Town will award no academic credit for this course.

Calendar

17/02 - Seminar 1*

24/02 - Seminar 2

02/03 - Seminar 3*

09/03 - No seminar

16/03 - Seminar 4

23/03 - Seminar 5*

30/03 - Seminar 6

06/04 - No seminar

13/04 - Seminar 7*

20/04 - Seminar 8

25/04 - Special event**

27/04 to 06/05 - Exam window

*double seminar

**this event takes place on a Monday

Should you have any additional questions kindly contact the course administrator Andrea Blaauw at andrea.blaauw@uct.ac.za .

We hope this course will be a pleasant and instructive experience.