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Lawi threatens Mibawa Band with court action

Afro-soul artist Lawi is contemplating dragging Mibawa Band to court for allegedly playing his songs without consent at a public show.

Lawi’s manager, Ernest Kaliza, confirmed the news in an interview last week, adding their legal team is meeting over the matter.

Lawi claims Mibawa Band flouted the Copyright Act by playing his music without permission
Lawi claims Mibawa Band flouted the Copyright Act by playing his music without permission

However, Mibawa Band owner John Nthakomwa has quickly laughed off the matter, claiming it may just be a misinterpretation of the law on the part of Lawi’s camp.

A fortnight ago, Mibawa Band held a music show at Lilongwe Golf Club which also featured the likes of Prince Martin, Skeffa Chimoto, Faith Mussa and Lulu.

It is understood that the Blantyre-based group, led by its lead vocalist Goma Nyondo, performed on stage some tracks from Lawi’s latest self-titled album, notably Amaona Kuchedwa which is currently a darling to many from the composition.

The country’s Copyright Act, Section 47(1) stipulates that performing another person’s work for commercial purposes is an infringement to copyright.

“We verified that the [Mibawa] band performed Lawi’s songs without our consent and when we contacted the owner of the band [Nthakomwa] to establish whether this was done under his directive, his response was not forthcoming,” said Kaliza.

But, much as Nthakomwa confirmed to have played Lawi’s songs at the said gig and to have been approached by the Lawi camp over the matter, he denied any wrongdoing, claiming his band violated no law in dishing out some artists’ hits on stage.

“I’m sure that Lawi and company are just getting it all wrong in interpreting the rules and regulations guiding artists as regards to copyright. Actually, it’s not only Lawi’s songs that were performed on the day. Prince Martin did several reggae pieces by renowned international artists like [Bob] Marley and Lucky Dube. Are these two, for example, going to sue us? I just don’t think that the way these things work is,” he wondered.

Nthakomwa claimed that prior to forming Mibawa Band, he consulted widely and was given the go-ahead by various stakeholders including the Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma) as regards to performing works by other artists.

“We believe in professionalism and we don’t compromise on quality. We know we have got a reputation to protect. Otherwise, we couldn’t have performed other people’s works if advised otherwise,” he said.

But Kaliza still believes that the Mibawa Band boss is getting it all wrong on saying “the law does not stop performance of any artist’s song’ they are only ‘not allowed to record on a CD or any other media for sale.”

He pointed out that every artist or band registered with Cosoma [Copyright Society of Malawi] has exclusive rights of their material.

“Anyone thus wanting to re-use the material in any format has to get consent, like I said earlier; it is all in the elementary copyright lessons”.

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