Murmures

Musicians in the north on Monday expressed disappointment at the continued piracy in the country, a development they attributed in part to what they called flawed licensing procedures by the Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma).

The musicians vented their anger during the meeting with Mum president, Reverend Chimwemwe Mhango.

Gospel musician Kelvin Sato said the meeting was important and it attracted up to 20 artists from the region.

“The main agenda was Cosoma’s move to issue licences to vendors. We are talking about issuing licences to those people who get songs on flash disks. We feel this move was rushed and it needs to be stopped,” said Sato.

He said there were loopholes in this move which has seen several other people packaging songs for different artists and selling them outside the country.

“As artists we are not happy with this move, it has to be stopped for now,” he said.

The musicians also bemoaned the delays in strengthening the Copyright Act.

“We need this improved Copyright Act. We have an act which is very weak and as a result people all over are pirating our works. As long as we do not have an improved Copyright Act with stiffer penalties, piracy will continue to flourish,” said Sato.

Mhango confirmed the meeting.

He said there were a number of issues that the musicians raised and his body would take the necessary step to deal with them through relevant authorities.

“Our office has been receiving concerns from musicians on different issues and so we decided to engage them starting with the Northern Chapter and then we will meet musicians in the Central Chapter on Wednesday (tomorrow) before finishing off with the Southern Chapter,” he said.

He added, “Actually, the musicians are very angry and many want to march to bring these issues to the government. There are lots of issues that the musicians presented including the fee hike of venues.”

Mhango, who is also Cosoma’s Board Chairman, said his body would compile all the resolutions after engaging all the musicians in the chapters and thereafter present them to the copyright body.