MultiChoice, together with the Copyright Society of Malawi, have partnered in the bid to guard creative copyright and Intellectual Property (IP) rights by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) before the release of their Partners Against Piracy (PAP) drive.
The memorandum assures the alliance between the two entities in their determination against content piracy and enlightenment in keeping with the Partners Against Piracy (PAP) drive.
The drive will include engagements that will enlighten the public by educating them on the indirect repercussions of piracy and the harmfulness it models for the creatives, the community and individual cyber protection.
MultiChoice Malawi Corporate Affairs Manager, Zena Makunje, indicated that the purpose of the collaboration with COSOMA is to raise awareness on the impact of piracy on the creative industry in Malawi and rehash the Partners Against Piracy’s ethics that African content matters.
The Executive Director of Copyright Society of Malawi (COSOMA), Dora Makwinja, mentioned that they are delighted and glad to have joined forces with MultiChoice on this venture.
“The signing of this memorandum signifies a turning point; now we gear up for the following step, which is executing plans to fight piracy,” stated Makwinja.
Piracy involves the unauthorised reproduction, distribution, usage, including sharing or selling copyrighted content. Piracy is theft as it robs content creators, artists and entire creative communities of their royalties. It also denies the government of taxes.
This drive will centre precisely on piracy, which includes broadcast piracy which results in the utilisation of audio and video content without the consent of rights-holders.
PAP aims to assert that Malawi’s content developers acquire a livelihood from their work raise the standard of content produced locally by utilising endorsed work.
The content most often pirated, according to research, is music, video content, internet software, literature, and the latest movies.
Current statistics reflect that content piracy globally is at an all-time high.
