BOMU tackles piracy
Lekopanye Mooketsi | Friday June 13, 2014 14:24
Speaking in an interview, BOMU president, Phempheretlhe Pheto, said it seems they are winning the war against piracy. Pheto said this is mainly due to the education campaigns that they have been waging, especially in Gaborone.
The BOMU official said they staged one such campaign at the Gaborone station, explaining that the results are beginning to show. Pheto told Arts & Culture that people have been giving them feedback following the educational campaigns. Pheto said some members of the public did not know that downloading a CD into a memory stick is piracy.
“People have reduced pirating,” he said.
Pheto said their campaigns are targeting, manufacturers, distributors, retailers and consumers. He explained that without consumers there will be no market for retailers. This is why it is important to educate consumers as well. Pheto revealed that the wholesalers and retailers have been adequately addressed, adding that their next target will be the distributors.
Pheto said that the high rate of piracy had affected local music.
“Local music was not selling. Even established artists could not breakeven,” he said.
According to the official, about 80 percent of local artists do music full time. He said this means that they depend on music. He noted that once their music is pirated, they have no means of survival.
Pheto, however, said the situation is beginning to stabilise. He said they are planning to spread the campaign to other parts of the country.
They are working in collaboration with the Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property, Pheto said. He added that they are also depending on government funding to keep the campaign going. He revealed that the police are also assisting them to implement the law. A recording artist himself, Pheto, said he was also affected by piracy in the past. He recalled that at one stage, he found that certain Chinese traders had pirated 1,500 copies of his CDs and cassettes.
“We found them packaged in boxes in their shop,” he said.