M.R. Islam

Chapter 10 – Summary and Conclusions

As the preceding chapters of this book have demonstrated, copyright law alone does not constitute a national copyright environment. Legislation is only part of a system that includes regulations, policies, cases and judicial attitudes and more importantly, copyright-related practices, including perceptions and interpretations of these practices. The preceding chapters show the richness and complexity of the qualitative data that can emerge from studying systems of law and practice in a holistic way. The purpose of this final chapter is to look at the doctrinal and qualitative findings and the interconnections between these findings across the eight countries. The goal is to summarise findings, draw general conclusions, highlight lessons learned and point toward possible ways to build African copyright environments that better support education through access to learning materials and dissemination of knowledge.