In October 2019, the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) released a new Model Law on Copyright and Related Rights. EIFL reviewed the ARIPO Model Law against EIFL’s ‘Core Library Exceptions Checklist’ that sets out provisions that every copyright law should have to support modern library activities and services.

The ARIPO model scored a modest 61% in EIFL’s scorecard ‘Rate my copyright law’. While provisions that recognize the digital environment are very welcome, without the necessary safeguards, how these provisions will operate in reality is open to question.