Moshito 2007
During mid-2007, CASA was invited to join the Board of Moshito, a non-profit organisation whose aims are to enhance and represent the interests and aspirations of Music Industry stakeholders in South Africa.
The 2007 Moshito Annual Conference and Exhibition was held at Museum Africa in Newtown, Johannesburg from 22-25 August 2007. One of the "HotSeat" discussions on Thursday 23 August was "User compliance: Corporate theft of copyright".
The following panelists were invited to participate:
FACILITATOR: Johnny Dimba, Showbusiness Foundation; SPEAKERS: Modiri Mochoari, SAMRO; Ron Brettell, Mathambo Music; Colin Shapiro, CASA; Elsje Oosthuizen, SABC; George Christofides, Jukebox Jungle; Mandla Mnyatheli, DTI; Oupa Lebogo, CWUSA
Sadly, neither the SABC nor Jukebox Jungle attended.
Below is the opening address from this panel discussion. See bottom for further links.
MUCCI - Music User Copyright Compliance Initiative
Address by Colin Shapiro - Chairman of Composers Association of SA (CASA)
A lot of discussion will take place at Moshito and beyond about piracy - a big issue which affects the music industry.
Most people will think of piracy as the illegal copying and sale of CD's and DVD's. This is certainly a big problem and cannot be ignored.
There is another form of piracy which takes place on an industrial scale, by various kinds of users of music - the illegal use of copyright material.
In its simplest form, it is the failure to fill out Cue Sheets.These are the standard means of reporting music usage and contain information about the music used for TV programmes etc. (eg track title, duration used, composer info, publisher info)
Without cue sheets, the use of music is not logged and the copyright owners can't possibly be paid licence fees or royalties for their music
Sometimes, this can be caused by ignorance.
Program producers or their staff may not be aware of their responsibility to fill in cue sheets
Sometimes, the cause is wilful avoidance of licence fees.
This is theft.
It's a criminal offence. (Ron Brettell, another panellist, provided some %'s of the failure to report usage)
Composers first lose out on mechanical royalties and also later on performance royalties.
No info = no money
Composers are obviously most affected at present, but when Needletime is finally implemented, performers will also suffer loss of income because of lack of compliance.
MUCCI (Music User Copyright Compliance Initiative)
Suggestions:
- Need to get all industry players to agree to a code of conduct of compliance
- No broadcast without clearance
- Music can not be used for free ; library music can not be used recklessly by final mix studios; the staff at broadcasters and other users of music (eg final mix studios, producers) need to be educated in copyright and intellectual property matters (illegal use of music = piracy).
- Users could state that they are MUCCI-compliant
- Broadcasters should refuse to flight programmes which don't have MUCCI clearance
Additional notes & quotes from other Moshito discussions (+ comments)
Alex Agulnik: "Collection societies must be more aggressive."
- I feel that a few arrests and prosecutions could be very persuasive too
Monica Newton: "Innovation drives economies"
- Some kind of technical innovation is required to fast-track reporting and use
Keith Lister: "Real-time reporting of music usage is essential"
- Digital metadata could fast-track music usage
Suggestion from 1st plenary: Develop an Industry Charter
- This charter should include the concept and implementation of MUCCI
For more Moshito info, plus reports and dwonloads, visit the Moshito website
Join us to discuss Moshito and all composer-related issues: The CASA Forums.
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