Murmures

Lilongwe has been labelled a city of Cashgate following the scandal that saw millions of kwacha being stolen at Capital Hill.

Another fresh issue has come up labelling the capital city as a home of piracy with many artists confirming the development.

Investigations by The Daily Times from some vendors who sell CDs and DVDs at Blantyre market also revealed that many buy the pirated copies in Lilongwe.

“I have been in this business of selling CDs for a long-time. I buy these CDs and DVDs from Lilongwe,” said a vendor, who declined to be named.

At this time the vendor was selling several pirated CDs for different artists including Lilongwe based artist Skeffa Chimoto’s Chikondi album.

He said he buys the CDs and DVDs in Lilongwe where they are always available and in good supply.

“We get them cheaper; to us we don’t know that they are pirated copies. All we are doing is just buying the CDs at an affordable price and then selling them here at a higher price and get profit,” said the vendor.

Piracy has hit hard on artists in the country some of which have now stopped producing albums and are only concentrating on producing singles.

Kwathu Drama Group Director Eric Mabedi said recently that they were concerned with the rate of piracy in the country revealing that one of their members found some pirated copies of work selling in Lilongwe which he confiscated.

Reverend Chimwemwe Mhango, who is Musicians Union of Malawi (Mum) President and Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma) Board Chairman, also confirmed that piracy was worse in Lilongwe compared to other areas.

“It is true that piracy is worse in Lilongwe and this is where you get more of the pirated copies. This is where people produce pirated copies. I for one as a musician I have confiscated several copies of my works,” said Mhango.

Asked as to why this was the case and yet Cosoma’s headquarters is in Lilongwe, Mhango said:

“Cosoma has not just been idle; it has confiscated machines used for producing some of these pirated copies and raided different places and people have been arrested but they are released the following day.”

He said there was more that needs to be done to minimise piracy saying there was no seriousness on the part of the government to change the Copyright Act.

“People are being arrested but they are released the following day because they manage to pay fines. There is need to change the Copyright Act so that people should face stiffer penalties which would in turn bring fear to the perpetrators,” he said.

While hitting at the government for weak Copyright Act, Mhango also took a swipe at artists saying they were also the contributing factor to the rampant piracy.