•Artistes including musicians are losing their hard-earned income through piracy.

By JOWIT SALUSEKI –

FOR a long time musicians and other artistes in Zambia have bemoaned the loss of their hard earned income through piracy by some unscrupulous people who reproduce and use their works without permission.
In the recent past combined teams of police officers, musicians and other stakeholders have swung into action confiscating pirated audio visual and Digital Versatile Disks (DVD) and destroying them to stop piracy from flourishing.
In 2010, Government amended the copyright and performance Rights Act to provide for the implementation of hologram, which is a security feature to be affixed on all audio-visual products sold in Zambia.
The selling of audio –visual products without a hologram was earmarked to end on October 31, 2013, while all music and video products sold in the country were to be affixed with hologram stickers with effect from November 1, 2013, a law aimed at fighting piracy.
The government last year awarded a contract to OSPEC, a UK based global company specialised in providing anti-counterfeit and brand solutions to supply five million holograms.
With the introduction of holograms, the state through then Information and Broadcasting services Permanent Secretary Amos Malupenga was delighted that the problem of piracy that had been a perpetual issue was going to be dealt with the force it deserved.
“Piracy continues to be a key challenge in the country and has been a major reason for the losses that the music and video production industry have continued to suffer on the market.
We are now going flat out to spread an awareness campaign against piracy in collaboration with stakeholders such as the police, Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA), learning institutions among others,” he said.
Holography is a technique which enables three –dimensional images to be made. It involves the use of a lazer, interface, and diffraction, light intensity recording and suitable illumination for recording.
The image changes as the position and the orientation of the viewing system changes in exactly the same way as the object were still present, thus making the image appear in three -dimension.
The first hologram was made in 1947 by Denis Gabor, a Hungarian born scientist who was working at the imperial college of London in United Kingdom. Holography is the only visual recording and playback process that can record on both three dimensional or two –dimensional recording medium and playback the original object to the unaided eyes. The image demonstrates complete parallax and depth –of-field, floating in space either behind, in front, or straddling the recording medium.
However various artistes have continued to complain that they are not benefiting from their music products even after the introduction of hologram stickers since the market is still being flooded with pirated audio –visual CDs and music DVDs which have continued to be sold freely on the streets of Lusaka and other Towns in the country.
Pirated audio CDs which are sold on the streets of Lusaka, especially the ‘Zed hits’ compilations which is  mostly  an  MP3 disk  of  a pirated  collection of popular Zambian music costs between K3 and K5, while DVD’s  are priced between K5 and K10 .
These CDs have hologram stickers but the question is where the dealers obtain them from.
When contacted dealers of pirated CDs with hologram stickers on Lusaka’s Freedom Way, insisted that the CDs were original despite selling at a much lower price than those from authorized dealers like Sounds Investment.
They also insisted that they made profits from the sales at the mentioned prices.
Despite counterfeit music products being cheap, pirated audio-visual CDs damage the music system of its users while the government also loses out on revenues.
Experts advise the general public that before buying audio and video CDs, they have to look at the quality of the case and paper insert found in most CDs as genuine material with holograms normally have high –quality cases, displaying all the necessary information on high quality paper.
They further advice on checking the name of the media player and the producer for errors and clarity saying that many pirated CDs features small errors which may go unnoticed.
Incorrect information or spellings are also said to be sure signs of piracy as counterfeit CDs do not have a Copyright information at all, while some will have incorrect details.
Analysing the sound and picture quality  is also another way of  differentiating fake  music and video products from genuine materials as pirated products have a long gap between songs or sound like they have being recorded from the radio.
Musician Japhet Chirwa who is widely known as JC Madongo says the government should help musicians in curbing pirated music products sold on the streets with the same vigour witnessed when the infamous Chibolya Township in Lusaka was recently raided by law enforcement agencies to arrest illicit drug dealers.
“The government should help artistes in  combating   piracy on the street the same way they have done with  tujilijili and drugs in Chibolya…artistes are unable to fight piracy on their own because they lack the manpower to arrest the people who are selling pirated music CDs on the streets’’, said Mr Chirwa.
The reggae artiste revealed that because he was unable to make any meaningful income from the sale of his music CDs, he has ventured into T-shirt printing and sign writing in order to sustain his family of five.
Another artiste Benji Maluti said young talented musicians who want to pursue a career in the music industry are getting discouraged because the market has continued to be awash with counterfeit music products, despite artistes being charged a K1 per hologram sticker which is affixed to genuine music Compact Disks.
Maluti said the introduction of holograms has not addressed the issue of piracy looking at the number of pirated CDs that are displayed on the corridors of trading areas.
In an effort to fight piracy, government has seized pirated audio visual products worth more than K9 million from around the country since January this year.
Information and Broadcasting Services Minister, Joseph Katema said Government had intensified the fight against piracy and counterfeit products in an aggressive manner never seen before.
Dr Katema said during the opening of the Zambia Music Copyright Protection Society (ZAMCOPS) 14th annual general meeting in Lusaka recently.
He said the implementation of the holograms was going well and his ministry had sold and affixed a total of 1,005,000 since the exercise began a year ago.
He said the ongoing review of the trademarks, patents and companies Acts, was all part of Government’s commitment to the promotion and protection of intellectual property which contributed to job and wealth creation.
“In this regard, you may wish to know ladies and gentlemen that since January this year, my Ministry in collaboration with law enforcement agencies and other stake holders has seized thousands of audio video products over K9 million in operations across the country,” Dr Katema said.
He said piracy had the potential to undermine the social and economic well-being of the country.
Dr Katema urged artists and dealers in audio-visual works to comply with the law by having all their products for sale on the market affixed with the hologram.
ZAMCOPS Board Chairperson, Edify Hamukale commended the Government for providing a conducive environment for local musical enterprise to contribute to the economic growth of the country.
He said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had increased funding to the society from K15,000 per year to K30,000 and this would enable it to contribute further to the economy of the country.
He said the hologram would enhance Government’s revenue collection through taxation which would help business flourish, reduce poverty levels and create employment if well supported by law enforcement agencies.
However, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Stephen Kampyongo said the government was trying to look out at the issue of piracy by setting out laboratories that will interface with the Zambia Information and Communication Technology (ZICTA) in order to fight the vice.
Mr Kampyongo said musicians were also partly to be blamed because they are fond of entrusting their music demos with Disk Jockeys from various radio stations for airplay before their music even hits the market.
“Let the music industry themselves set standards because piracy needs consented efforts to be fought’’, he said.
It is only hoped that the relevant authorities will intensify the fight against piracy as it is not only artistes  who are losing out  on an income through piracy  as  the government is also losing  out on tax revenues  which it is supposed to earn from the music  and video  production industry after the introduction of holograms.