Murmures

Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma) has said piracy still remains their major challenge saying the problem has been propelled by the technological developments.

The copyright body has faced the wrath of artists in the country who have at times said that the body was doing nothing to assist them in minimising piracy which has now become rampant.

Many artists are failing to make money out of their CDs and DVDs as in most cases their works are pirated.

The rampant piracy has even forced some of the artists to sell CDs and DVDs on their own even without holograms.

Cosoma’s Executive Director, Dora Makwinja, said piracy has always been their number one priority and she admitted that this is a major challenge.

“The problem has been exacerbated by the technological developments. We are trying as much to fight piracy. We still have a problem of resources, both human and financial,” said Makwinja.

She also said that many artists were selling their CDs and DVDs on their own because of piracy but also the closure of music production business by OG Issa.

“Musicians are selling their CDs and DVDs on their own as a result of piracy but also the closure of music production business by OG Issa created an opportunity for other smaller producers. However, most of them lack capacity to satisfy the demands of the market and of course to pay for the hologram,” said Makwinja.

She said it was because of these capacity challenges of and inadequate resources that many end up asking musicians to pay for the hologram when actually it is supposed to be them paying for it.

“This discourages some musicians from affixing holograms on their albums. As Cosoma we have had sensitisation meetings with our members in the three regions where this issue has been discussed and agreed upon,” she explained.

Makwinja said despite this move they still have a good number of major musicians selling their albums with holograms.

Makwinja also zeroed in on the problem of compliance by some users to pay licence fees.

Despite the many challenges including piracy, she said there are positives which they made as a copyright body revealing that they last year started licensing those who download musical works into flash disks.

She also said apart from this, Cosoma extended reprographic licences to secondary schools (both public and private) through the circular that they got from the Ministry of Education.

“We have already reached out to many schools and some have already started complying. We also signed a bilateral agreement with the Copyright Licensing Agency of the UK which is a milestone achievement for us,” said Makwinja.

She said the bilateral agreement with the Copyright Licensing Agency is aimed at facilitating licensing of use of copyright works authored and published by British authors and publishers respectively.

“As you will appreciate that our education systems (especially at tertiary level) still largely depends on the UK materials. Licensing is our ongoing exercise and in any case the agreement has strengthened our position as a collective management organisation,” said the Cosoma Executive Director.

She said for the first time in Malawi and Africa as a whole, the board meeting of the International Federation of Reprographic Rights Organisations (Ifrro) took place in Malawi.