The parties
[8] The plaintiff, National Soccer League t/a The Premier Soccer League, is a universitas conducting its affairs, and
having its principal place of business at PSL Place, 2 Winchester Road, Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown,
Johannesburg, Gauteng Province ("the plaintiff").
[9] The defendant, Gidani (Pty) Ltd is a registered private limited liability company, duly incorporated as such in
terms of the Companies Act, 2008, (Act 71 of 2008) as amended, with its principal place of business and head
office situate at Gidani House, Stand 405, Halfway House Extension 2, Old Pretoria Main Road, Halfway House
(Midrand), Gauteng Province.
[10] The defendant is the official National Lottery operator.
Applicable provisions of Copyright Act relied upon
[11] In terms of section 2 of the Copyright Act 1978 (Act 98 of 1978) as amended ("the Copyright Act" or "the
Act"):
" 2. Works eligible for copyright.
(1)
. . . the following works, if they are original, shall be eligible for copyright
(a)
literary works;
(b)
musical works;
(c)
artistic works;
(d)
cinematograph films;
(e)
sound recordings;
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(f)
broadcasts;
(g)
programmecarrying signals;
(h)
published editions;
(i)
computer programmes.
(2)
A work, except a broadcast or programmecarrying signal, shall not be eligible for copyright unless the work
has been otherwise reduced to a material form.
(2A)
. . .
(3)
A work shall not be ineligible for copyright by reason only that the making of the work, or the doing of any act
in relation to the work, involved an infringement of copyright in some other work."
[12] Section 23 of the Act deals with the infringement of copyright as well as the remedies therefor. It reads as
follows:
"23.
Infringement. (1) Copyright shall be infringed by any person, not being the owner of the copyright, who,
without the licence of the owner, does or causes any other person to do, in the Republic, any act which the
owner has the exclusive rights to do or to authorise.
(2)
Without derogating from the generality of subsection (1), copyright shall be infringed by any person who,
without the licence of the owner of the copyright, and at a time when copyright subsists in a work
(a)
. . .
(b)
sells, lets or by way of trade offers or exposes for sale, or hire in the Republic any article;
(c)
distributes in the Republic any article for the purposes of trade, or for any other purpose, to such an
extent that the owner of the copyright in question is prejudicially affected; and
(d)
. . .
if to his knowledge the making of such/that article constituted an infringement of that copyright or would have
constituted such an infringement if the article has been made in the Republic.
(3)
The copyright in a literary or musical work shall be infringed by any person who permits a place of public
entertainment to be used for a performance in public of the work, where the performance constitutes an
infringement of the copyright in the work: Provided that this subsection shall not apply in a case where the
person permitting the place of public entertainment to be so used was not aware and had no reasonable
grounds for suspecting that the performance would be an infringement of the copyright."
[13] Action likely to be taken by the owner of a copyright for infringement is governed by section 24 of the Act.
Those subsections relevant to this action we are dealing with are the following:
Section 24 which reads as follows:
"(1)
Subject to the provisions of this Act, infringement of copyright shall be actionable at the suit of the owner of the
copyright, and in any action for such an infringement all such relief by way of damages, interdict, delivery of
infringing copies or plates used or intended to be used for infringing copies or otherwise shall be available to
the plaintiff as is available in any corresponding proceedings in respect of infringement of other proprietary
rights.
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