Namibia: Government Urged to Act on Piracy

Source from:  New Era (Windhoek) 10 October 2008 10/13/2008

The Copyright Society of Namibia (NASCAM) has expressed its disappointment in the Government for allegedly ignoring calls by the organisation to clampdown on violation of intellectual property rights through piracy and counterfeit production. In a strongly worded press statement the chief executive officer of the organisation, John Max, said that piracy and counterfeit production have a negative impact on the country's economy. "They disadvantage and discourage our creators of artistic work and those investing in the music and film industries. The Government has only considered tobacco and liquor as a priority now. It is not acceptable to choose only one or two fake products to be eliminated, but we call for all the fake products in our market to be wiped out," Max said. NASCAM would like to remind our government law enforcement agencies and lawmakers that the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Protection Act of 1994 is one of the most important laws of our country. "It should be applied fully when it comes to the infringement of copyright matter or Intellectual properties. This law attracts investment in the arts industry, it encourages Namibia artists to produce artistic work whether musicians, authors, moviemakers, playwrights or painters. It is because of this law that most activities in the film and music industry take place in Namibia, because they believe that Namibian law is not allowing counterfeit and piracy. We need to promote clampdowns on all fake products, which spoil our market and damage and confuse the consumer mindset," he said. In his view all fake products are having negative effects on the economy. "Fake products lead to conflict between seller and customer, by exchanging fake products, in most cases the customer or consumer never considers the danger involved when they buy counterfeit or piracy products," he asserted. The following business sectors in our economic environment have become victims of fake products: artists in general, music labels, film producers, music retailers, video rental owners, tobacco and liquor distributors. "We need to protect these sectors in order to keep them in business. Most of this kind of business is run by young Namibians, who become business entrepreneurs within the entertainment sector, which has started to contribute to our economic and unemployment trends. Therefore we appeal to the Government to act without selection of certain products only, but to treat all fake stuff in the same way they decided to deal with those producers and sellers of fake tobacco and liquor in our Namibia market," he concluded. Enditem