One of ANFASA’s objectives is promoting the recognition and fair remuneration of authors as well as respect for their rights and an important service offered to members as well as non-members is; the vetting of publishing contracts before the author signs.

In order to provide a framework offering the ins and outs to publishing contracts, ANFASA started a copyright workgroup (consisting of copyright lawyers and publishing consultants) tasked with the responsibility of meeting with the Publishers’ Association of South Africa (PASA) and negotiating what is commonly known as a Minimum Terms Agreement (MTA) as one way of encouraging better bargaining relationships between authors and publishers. This document exists in a few countries in the world (e.g UK) and it provides a minimum set of terms to be included in all publishing contracts. ANFASA studied the MTA in the UK and looked at coming up with a South African version to that document, one that would speak to the concerns of the local publishing industry.

The copyright workgroup commenced negotiations towards an MTA in January 2008 by meeting with PASA where the idea of having an MTA was formally introduced. This idea was also embraced by PASA in principle and logistics as to its drafting were underway. The rest of 2008 saw the idea of an MTA being introduced to both ANFASA and PASA members. At that point the main crux to the issue became the title to the document. PASA was wholly opposed to the document being called an MTA because the sentiment was that the title was very prescriptive and bordered on infringing competition law.

Meanwhile, the ANFASA copyright workgroup worked on a draft MTA largely informed by the copyright and contracts workshops held over the years were concerns from authors about what their expectations are, what international best practice provides for and the current South African practice were discussed. This document was then made open to members for comment and that helped inform ANFASA about what authors want. Thereafter the intention of the copyright workgroup was to sit down with a PASA copyright team and together draft the official MTA. However, negotiations on how this process should unfold continued for the rest of 2008.

This year saw the continued lobbying of the MTA with PASA. The copyright workgroup on behalf of ANFASA continued talking to the publishers, cultivating the common ground that will allow for both parties to work together. It became apparent that the only way forward will be to change the title to the document and at this point ANFASA had to insist that the word “agreement” was a key word to be retained in the alternative title to the document. As a result an alternative title was agreed on; ANFASA-PASA Agreement on Contract Terms (APACT).

Currently, both the ANFASA and PASA copyright teams are in the process of drafting the document and by early next year the drafting process should be completed. APACT will work as a checklist, it will assist an author in vetting a contract. It will provide all the key clauses that should be contained in a publishing contract and reasons why they should be. This document should go a long way in assisting authors understand contracts better and be able to negotiate better terms for themselves.