Unscrambling the Curate’s Egg – Full Review of the Copyright Amendment Bill
In an earlier article posted on this blog, the Copyright Amendment Bill published in Government Gazette no. 39028, dated 27 July, 2915, was described as a curate’s egg, i.e something that is fundamentally bad but in principle has some good aspects. The view was expressed that the Bill could not be cured by piecemeal amendments, and that it was necessary to go back to the beginning, decide rationally what is actually wanted and warranted, and then re-draft it afresh. We stand by and reiterate this view. Nevertheless, in the interests of ultimately having a workable and reasonable piece of...
Read MoreDTI Dishes Up A Hopeless Curate’s Egg
The figure of speech used in describing something as a “curate’s egg” derives from a cartoon by G du Maurier published in the British humorous magazine Punch in November 1895. It depicts a meek curate, faced with a bad egg at the Bishop’s breakfast table, commenting that it is partly good. In other words it is something that is thoroughly bad but is discreetly said to be partly good.[1] “The term relies on an objective analysis and intuitive understanding of the depicted scenario: a self-contained egg cannot be both partially spoiled and partially unspoiled. To pretend to find...
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