BULAWAYO // Faced with rising large-scale piracy, partly blamed on a decade of severe economic instability, local musicians are calling on the government to toughen the punishments for offenders in order to curb the practice. "Piracy is to the arts, what Aids is to the human race," said Joe Maseko, music producer at House of Rising Sound Studio, in Bulawayo. "It must be fought and the best way to do that is to introduce lengthy jail terms, not low fines as is the case now."
People arrested for pirating music, films and other art forms normally get away with fines as little as US$100 or are sentenced to community service, where the court orders the guilty party to do odd jobs at hospitals or schools. Mr Maseko said the sector has been facing dwindling record sales in recent years as the economic crisis depletes consumer spending power, so piracy is worsening an already dire situation.
The Copyright and Neighbouring Act, makes it an offence for any person to sell, let, hire, trade or distribute any article to such an extent that prejudices the owner of the copyright in question. But Mr Maseko said the law has done little to deter dozens of organised syndicates, operating mainly in Harare and Bulawayo, which use hi-tech copying equipment to produce thousands of fake audio and video productions on a commercial scale.
The syndicates then release the copies to vendors who openly sell them at street corners across the country at $1 a copy for a CD, far cheaper than the average $5 for genuine copies. In 2007, a music album by Alick Macheso, a popular local artist, hit the streets of Harare weeks before its official release, prompting a wave of arrests of suspects. One of those arrested for duplicating the collection, was sentenced to perform 105 hours of community service.
More recently, 15 people were arrested in Bulawayo for selling duplicated music. One of them was given a suspended six-month prison sentence and ordered to perform 210 hours of community work while another was fined $100. William Tsandukwa, Macheso's manager, said the punishment given in the 2007 case demonstrates the ineffectiveness of copyright theft laws. "That is why local musicians are surviving on live shows," said Mr Tsandukwa. "If the sentences remain like this, an offender immediately gets back to his old ways after paying the fine because [the fines] are not frightening enough."
Webster Shamu, the patron of the Zimbabwe Union of Musicians, recently said harsher penalties like mandatory seven-year prison terms on offenders can deter would-be pirates. "I liken a person who does piracy to a cattle rustler," said Mr Shamu, who is also the minister of media, information and publicity. "You are sucking the blood of artists. I think whoever is found guilty of the crime of piracy should be sentenced to a mandatory seven years in prison.
"Artists put a lot of effort into their work, only for the pirates to reap profits from them and put money in their own pockets. I call upon the law-enforcement agents in the country to ruthlessly deal with this scourge that is affecting this business." Some of Zimbabwe's neighbours have tough legislation against piracy. In Botswana, for instance, convicted pirates get prison terms of six months and more.
Mary Jaure, administration assistant of the Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (Zimra), a union of composers and publishers of music, said piracy has reached alarming levels, but harsher penalties, such as those applying in other countries, could reduce the problem. "Livestock theft attracts a sentence of up to10 years in jail," said Ms Jaure. "That sentence is informed by the knowledge that to steal someone's cattle is to rob them of their livelihood. But according to Zimra, copyright theft is robbing a musician of his livelihood. So, if the penalty for piracy is made more deterrent and the courts set a few examples, we will see positive change."
She said music piracy appears to have become more widespread in recent years because of economic problems. On one hand, she said, people duplicate music and sell it to survive, while on the other, financially constrained music lovers buy copied records because of the low prices. Elvas Mari, acting director of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, said piracy in Zimbabwe is most prevalent in music, sculpture and literature sub-sectors of the arts.
Although no studies have been done to quantify losses that the arts incur due to the crime, he said the fact that duplicated products are almost everywhere and offenders have been prosecuted shows there is considerable financial impact on the sector. "They are criminals, they do not employ anyone," said Mr Mari. "They do not pay tax, money that should be going to the fiscus." @Email:tmpofu@thenational.ae