THE Government has proposed that fines in respect of
copyright infringement should be charged per each CD or product pirated just as
in stocktheft cases as a means to deter would-be offenders and to protect the
works of artistes in the country.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs Mrs Virginia Mabhiza said this following the President
Mnangagwa’s interface with artistes from Bulawayo recently where they aired out
their concerns including lack of
seriousness by the authorities in dealing with the scourge of piracy.
Mrs Mabhiza said it was important to protect the works of
local artistes who were eking out a living out of sales of their music and
film. She said her ministry was aware of its role in protecting intellectual
property rights.
“In the case of infringement of those rights our Act
provides for several remedies, they provide for recourse in cases of
infringement for example damages, where the infringed party can sue for
damages, it also provides for an account of profits and also penalties that are
found under this Act. Anyone found guilty of violating copyright laws will be
liable to a fine not exceeding level 10 or imprisonment for a period not
exceeding two years,” she said.
She went on.“This is very deterrent in our view and what we
are supposed to do is enforcement. We need our courts to split the sentence, to
say for example where someone is caught with pirated CDs in passing sentence it
should be two years per CD. This is what we must do in keeping up with
sentencing like the fines, the monetary aspects.”
Mrs Mabhiza implored other stakeholders such as the police
to take up the challenge and support the initiative to curb the scourge of
piracy that she said had impoverished artistes.
In order to keep up with the rising cost of services and
inflation, Mrs Mabhiza said her ministry has been issuing statutory instruments
from time to time to increase the fines to make them more meaningful.
The Government increased fines for criminal offences in
October this year by up to 200 percent in a new scale of fines announced in
terms of the Finance Act and the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.
The new fines were published in the Government Gazette
under Statutory Instrument 209 of 2019 (Criminal Law Codification and Reform
Act) (Standard Scale of Fines) Notice, 2019. A level 10 offence now carries a
fine of $6 000. National Arts Council of Zimbabwe director Mr Nicholas Moyo
said the artistes were worried about the interpretation of the law by the
justice system.
“The issue is interpretation of the law, if a person is
found with 100 pirated CDs from 10 artistes, they should be charged for those
10 counts because it is in respect of different artistes, each count being two
years making it 20 years imprisonment. When it is like this it is very
deterrent, unlike making it one count of piracy,” he said.
Mr Moyo said those who pirate CDs seldom sell music from
one artiste so accordingly they have to be charged for all the artistes that
they would have infringed upon.
He said once such things were enforced then artistes would
have the monopoly of selling their products at the correct prices and realising
profits as piracy would have been curbed. Furthermore, he said the Ministry of
Justice should be oriented on Intellectual Property Rights so that they could
then pass sentences accordingly.
Mr Moyo who is currently in Colombia said he was pleased to
see how people operate in that country.
“I was on the streets yesterday and I was impressed to see
that there were street vendors that sell original books, they get the books
from the authorities and are able to sell them in an organised and legal
manner. The books are not pirated and everyone benefits,” he said.
Relevant authorities in the country have been accused by
artistes of ignoring piracy which has affected their careers as the fines are
considered too measly and offenders get away with their crimes easily. This has
led to a situation where artistes were putting up solo efforts in the fight
against piracy with Chase Skuza having running battles with pirates in Bulawayo
a few years ago.
The Zimbabwean Publishers Association has also not been
spared as books are also being pirated at an alarming rate with schools having
been caught on the wrong side of the law after being found with pirated books.
Sunday News
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