Music Piracy, the way forward

A few weeks ago, the media was ablaze with the news of CecileKayirebwa ordering all radio stations and the National TV to stopplaying her songs on their respective media houses without her consent.It might be an action that we might all find hard to understand, but just like all heavy decisions, we’ll get to understand how good her decision was.For over 3 years now, Rwanda has had an Intellectual Property law.Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property rights include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.Music lies in the copyrights section and once registered, owners (musicians) of the intellectual property (song) are be able to benefit from the property they have created, providing a financial incentive for the creation of an investment in intellectual property.Actually, according to the Intellectual Property Law of Rwanda, no bars, radio stations, TV stations are supposed to use someone’s creations without their (musicians’) consent.Some time last year, police tried to enforce this law by closing down the many photo copying and music duplicating stores located in town. One of the owners of such business who had been detained told reporters that he didn’t know that his business was illegal because he paid taxes and wasn’t aware that duplicating was an offence.I am very sure no musician would stand up and say that they support the activity of duplicating their productions. But then, since this duplication looks like one we’ll live with forever; what are the musicians doing to curb this piracy?Well, so far, artists have formed an umbrella association; Rwanda Artists Association which brings together, musicians, film makers, authors and painters.With this association and the help of the Intellectual Property law, they are pushing for the value of their creations. Just like Kayirebwa did, we expect other musicians to do just like her but there is also the fact that many of them still need exposure and fame, therefore it is for their own good to get as much airplay as possible in all media.With all this, the only way forward for musicians out there is to register their creations with the Copyrights office of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) such that when the need for suing duplicating businesses arises, they have an upper hand. Registration of Copyrights is free at RDB.