PIRACY: WILL THE FIGHT EVER BE WON?

Each year, on World Intellectual Property Day, government champions the confiscation of and burning of the pirated materials. Copyright is everywhere, even the most careful artists have been affected. Legendary artist Lucius Banda recently quantified the loss that artists incur due to piracy to be in millions. After many years of the confiscation and burning of pirated work is there a solution in sight? Our Reporter ALBERT SHARRA explores.

Musicians have not made private the challenges they face due to piracy. Recently, Lucius Banda threatened to quit music and invest in other businesses.

“We were created to be musicians. But if you see us do other things, it’s because of piracy.

“We don’t wish to be in Parliament, neither do we want to be farmers nor academics. We are contented with music, but because we are not protected from piracy, that’s why we are turning into politics,” Banda said in Mzuzu earlier this year.

His remarks augurs with the Copyright Society of Malawi’s (Cosoma) revelation that pirated and counterfeit products, estimated at K50 million, were confiscated in Mzuzu to mark the commemoration of the World Intellectual Property Day which falls on April 17.

Said Banda: “When I released Down Babylon in 1995, I sold over 90 000 copies. This bought me a car and a house. But not today. Sales from an album will only buy you clothes.”

He said piracy has forced some artists into politics and other businesses in desperation for survival.

Lloyd Phiri and Peter Mlangeni also revealed how piracy affected production and release of their new albums Sachedwa Safumulira and Ndi Chisomo.

Adding salt to the wound is the fact that those who have made efforts to trace and drag to court pirates have got no pleasurable support from authorities. But, is there a peaceful way to curtail piracy?

Rhythm of life, a music recording studio in Lilongwe says they sell an anecdote to the problem. Situated in the city centre in Lilongwe, Rhythm of Life comes with the last dose to rout the practice of piracy if artists utilise the initiative.

The enterprise has introduced a new initiative called the Anti-copy and Anti-rip protection solution to compact discs (CDs) at its studios.

This is a computer programme that protects materials on disks from being copied or ripped. With the system, there are no chances of keeping videos in a computer, flash or floppy disk as it is impossible to copy them from the original disc.

Rhythm of Life director Tristram Johnson said the initiative is on, but said they are currently protecting disks with visuals only.

“We have the machine that protects visuals on a disk. It is an expensive machine, but we bought it after noting the pains piracy is causing to artists. As far as I know, it is not easy to protect audio material on a disk and we are encouraging artists to concentrate on producing digital versatile discs [DVDs] as we continue to search for a software that protects materials on a CDs,” he said, adding that piracy is not a concern to many countries in Europe, USA and other African countries because they protect their materials using the software.

Johnson challenges pirates that no one can copy videos from a CD protected at his studio.

He added that there is no need now for people to travel to South Africa or UK to protect their work.

Award-winning film-maker Shemu Joyah understands better how the software works. He has travelled to RSA several times to protect his movies.

To date, no one has burned visuals in his film, Seasons of a Life which he protected at Compact Disc Technologies (CDT) in RSA.

In an earlier interview, Joyah hailed artists who have taken a step to defeat piracy, but said disk protection could be the final solution.

“Piracy has become worse and the only way is to utilise the Rhythm of Life initiative, to protect our videos. When I released Seasons of a Life, I went to CDT and the visuals cannot be ripped or burned. Those who attempts to, do not get the same visual and sound quality as original and they cannot sell it,” said Joyah.

Despite knowing the service is available in neighbouring countries such as RSA, most musicians and video-makers have failed to access the service because of the cost.

Johnson, admits that the service is expensive, but said he is using fair charges because he understands the situation of many video-makers in Malawi.

“I want to serve video- makers. The service is also very cheap if one is protecting many disks at once.  The cost is charged per master copy and not per disk. When they are many, the fee is low because artists only pay extra money for the cost of processing the production of master copy which requires the purchase of a licence for each disk to be protected.

“Once this cost has been taken care of, one can produce as many protected discs at the same price,” said Johnson.

The music producer stressed that an artist who wants the service should budget for bulk production to make profit from their productions.