Starting this March, the Zimbabwe Music Rights Association will be embarking on Copyright Awareness Workshops across the country. The association will be hosting a workshop in a city in every province, with the aim of correcting various misconceptions and closing the information gap about copyright law among stakeholders. All musicians (members and non-members) and business owners in the music ecosystem are being invited to attend these workshops.
The copyright awareness campaign comes a few weeks after copyrights were brought to the forefront of Zimbabwean music by a series of copyright strikes on YouTube. A copyright dispute between the Charambas and Jah Signal being the triggering event. Jah Signal had two of his songs removed from the streaming platform due to uncleared samples of the Charambas music.
This led to several other artists issuing copyright strikes of their own. Kenako Music issued strikes on Winky D’s tracks “Mirror” and “Disappear” citing unpaid royalties and OCD issued a copyright strike on SaintFloew’s “Bipolar”.
Commenting on the campaign Polisile Ncube-Chimhini, the executive director of Zimura, shared that the workshops have been ongoing since last year and they seek to empower musicians with knowledge about intellectual property.
This is a service we give to artistes and stakeholders. From last year we did workshops around the country throughout the year, so this year we are doing the same. Artistes need to take time to know copyright to avoid infringing other artistes’ copyright.
Polisile Ncube-Chimhini
Workshop dates:
Manicaland – Mutare – 12 March
Midlands – Gweru – 27 March
Masvingo – Masvingo – 23 May
Mat North – Vic Falls – 26 June
Bulawayo – Bulawayo – 25 July
Harare – Harare – 7 August
Mash West – Chinhoyi – 28 August
Mash East – Marondera – 25 September
Mash Central – Bindura – 23 October
Mat South – Gwanda – 20 November
You can find out more information on the ZIMURA website or their social media handles.
