Thank you for being an integral part of our best year ever. We have delivered many practical and affordable legal solutions, challenged ourselves and had a great time doing it all. We:
- Increased the knowledge of thousands of people by holding about forty public workshops in various parts of the country (on POPI, eSigs, plain language, and IT GRC).
- Reduced risks by helping many organisations comply with POPI.
- Enabled many people to perform brilliantly in their roles by providing them with tools and support.
- Found collective solutions by facilitating over 30 private workshops and briefings.
- Made many aware of IT Law and help them to apply it to their circumstances.
- Improved relationships between people by drafting hundreds of beautiful legal documents, like IT contracts, agreements, policies, opinions, disclaimers, guides and manuals. We localised hundreds of documents for use in SA.
- Simplified the law by converting hundred of documents to plain language.
- Avoided conflict by resolving some disputes, where there were no real losers.
- Protected thousands of students and school children by making them aware of the risks online.
- Helped companies grow by registering or converting dozens of companies, including drafting shareholders agreements.
- Protected consumers by overseeing dozens of promotional competitions.
We need a break, so we’ll be closed from 22 December 2014 to 2 January 2015. We look forward to continuing working with you in 2015.
The key legal developments
Some of the highlights of 2014 were:
- Even though POPI did not commence in 2014, it is now much clearer what practically has to be done to protect personal information and therefore comply with the POPI Act.
- Many new top level domains were launched, including some in South Africa (like .joburg), which has resulted in many disputes.
- It has been confirmed that you can bid on someone else’s trademark for search and display advertising.
- Our courts have confirmed that you can change and cancel contracts by email.
- The legal status of electronic signatures was confirmed.
- The requirements for electronic billing or invoices has been clarified.
- Plain legal language continued to gain popularity with most people converting.
- The IT startup scene in South Africa (especially Cape Town) continued to blossom.
- The South African government (through the FPB) are trying to get greater control over user generated content.
- Many people got serious about PCI DSS compliance.
- The WASPA code of conduct was updated.
- CIPC launched a new website, which has severally impacted their ability to administer companies.
- The South African gaming industry continued to boom, increasing the number of legal questions and issues.
