By Onny Gangata
THE Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (ZIMURA), who are are on a copyright awareness campaign, recently visited Gweru to meet with stakeholders in the arts and music industry.
Stakeholders such as the ZRP, National Prosecution Authority (NPA), National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ), universities and radio stations all congregated in the Midlands capital to deliberate on how artists can navigate the copyright terrain.
Of late, several musicians in the country have seen some of their works taken down on music platforms such as YouTube due to copyright infringements.
Winky D, Jah Signal and Sainteflow are some of the local artists who have been victim to copyright strikes on YouTube.
ZIMURA deputy director Henry Makombe pointed out the significance of the awareness campaigns.
“The objectives of these workshops are to empower our law enforcement agents for them to understand the Copyright Law, the role of Zimura, benefits of registering with Zimura and appreciate how Zimura works with other stakeholders in the music industry,” Makombe said
“Another objective is for the lecturers and students from tertiary institutions to appreciate what the copyright Act says in relation to the duration of copyright, exclusive rights, Infringement of copyright, how musicians can use trademarks to enhance their brand and differentiate themselves from others, how the digital advancement is impacting their recordings, distribution, marketing, exploitation of their works and how they can engage with their fans, engage and network with other creative people.”
Pertinent questions raised by participants at the workshop centred around royalties, how they are calculated and distributed.
Veteran reggae musician, Man Soul Jah, real name Joseph Nhara, hailed ZIMURA for rolling out the programme. He also encouraged other musicians to be part of ZIMURA.
“This is a very important exercise for us as musicians to participate in. As musicians we need an agency that collects royalties from places where they are due, as musicians, royalties are important in sustaining and giving us lives,” Man Soul Jah said.
