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 ############## ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~