03 Feb 2019

Local artistes have been encouraged to register their work with Copyright Society of Botswana (COSBOTS) in order for them to get what is rightfully theirs.

COSBOTS chief executive officer, Lesego Selotate said this during a stakeholder’s consultative workshop in Francistown recently. 

Selotate highlighted that royalties would be distributed upon completion of the authentification process of full membership adding that registration of artistes was free.

Selotate said artistes, authors, publishers, photographers, visual arts and poets were in a better position to relate to their creative needs and as such should be part of the COSBOTS board of directors since it was mainly made up of artistes.

He stated that there was need for a collective effort and support from all stakeholders to raise awareness and encourage the development of creative artistic work and economic endeavors.

He explained that COSBOTS played an advocacy role for artistes, which included reproduction rights in works of visual arts, broadcasting rights and reprographic reproduction rights.

Giving a presentation on copyright laws in Botswana, copyright specialist from Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA), Tebo Motlhaping said the justification for intellectual property protection was to stimulate creativity and innovation among artists.

“Strong intellectual property protection goes hand in hand with government policies, encouraging investment in intellectual property and exhibiting the significant benefits of intellectual property to a country’s growth and development,” she added.

She further stated that the Copyrights Act grants the rights holder the authority to reproduce the work, translation of the work, public displaying of work, public distribution as well as rental and public lending. 

Meanwhile, Motlhaping said they were faced with a number of challenges such as low levels of copyright awareness, piracy and lack of statistics to use when advocating for support from various stakeholders.

She said there was need for collaboration between rights holders and CIPA to create awareness and fight piracy. ENDS