Badou,

I had the opportunity to get to know Hugh Masakela, the South African
Musician/song writer because he used to be married to a close friend of mine,
Jabou Mbatha, also a South African.
In the mid 80's, he and Jabou  left the States to go settle in  Harare,
Zimbabwe, and Hugh wanted to start producing the music of other Africans, as
well as write and produce his own music there. However, the Zimbabwen
government wanted over half of his income for taxes, so although they had
bought a huge mansion there to live in and use part of it as a studio,  they
left there and came to Botswana where I was living with my family at the
time. They wanted to do the same in Botswana, but that did not work out
either.

However, we spent a lot of time with Hugh and Jabou and it was at this time
that I learned how devastated he was about his music being pirated, and how
other people were making millions off of him and he was not making a single
penny from those revenues. and worst of all, he did not have the money to
even put up a fight.  For someone who was one of the top artists in the
States in the 60's, he did not have much money to show for this, and you
could see that he  was quite bitter about it, although he is a very positive
person by nature.

I am sure you know that Hugh was very big here in the States in the 60's but
he told us that unfavourable contract and piracy left him almost without any
money, and that up to that time, people were still illegally copying and
distributing his music.

Considering that for a musician, this is how they earn their living, it is
grossly unfair when others can use your work and make money without any sort
of regulation to prevent this. It is akin to a writer or painter having
someone illegally copy and sell your material  illegally with no  laws in
place to protect you.

Unfortunately though, we do not have the kind of situation at home where
issues like this  and others that affect the day to day lives of the public,
and which issues should receive attention are given any sort of importance.
I commend you though for at least making the effort and hopefully, one of
these days, we will have a government that works for the people.

Here in the U.S, this goes on as well, with small traders copying anything
from movies to tapes to DVDs and selling them on the streets, in weekeknd
markets etc, but at least, there are laws in the books and if you are
reported, the police will actually show up and confiscate pirated materials
and take the matter to court.
I hope that you and others in the industry can continue to bring this issue
to the forefront because is how laws are eventually enacted.

Jabou Joh
.
You wrote:

> Thank you for the initiative; the matter definitely deserves wider
> attention!
> Many people are not aware of it, but the copyright legislation is a
> major issue The moneys involved world-wide run into the hundreds of
> billions of dollars.
> For song writing artists such as me copyright royalties form a
> considerable source of income, so obviously we fight hard to defend our
> interests, monitoring all developments, specifically the internet piracy
> (Napster etc.) and the negative impact of large-scale piracy in Asia, in
> particular in China (clandestine Ifang Bondi cd's are easily available
> in Hong Kong)
>
> The Gambia hasn't ratified international copyright conventions, allowing
> legalized piracy, as a result of which Gambian musicians are denied
> royalties without impunity.
>
> Early 1998 I tried to raise the question at an official level by
> submitting an open letter to the National Assembly
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