The Sunday News
THIS past week Nama award-winning musician, Mukudzeyi Mukombe also known as Jah Prayzah was caught with his fingers in the cookie jar – apparently one of his successful songs, Mwanasikana is “stolen property”.
An online publication exposed Jah Prayzah for stealing Ghananian pop star, Emmanuel Samini’s song titled Samini.
Jah Prayzah took everything except the Ghananian lyrics. He literally superimposed shona lyrics on Samini’s song.
A comedian friend of mine says Jah Prayzah translated the song but forgot to mention the original singer. What is even scary is that Zimbabweans seem to see no problem in what Prayzah did, with most people that have commented on the story on social media seemingly thinking that the media should just leave the Zimbabwean musician alone. Others went on to the extent of claiming that the unmasking of this crime is just a plot to pull the rising Zimbabwean star down.
Jah Prayzah admits he used Samini’s song because he never thought it was a recorded song. He deliberately forgot to double-check whether it was a recorded song on not.
In his defence he further argues that he is not so well knowledgeable in copyright laws. However, that kind of argument will not exonerate him as ignorance of the law is no defence at all.
Just imagine all the people pirating dvds and cds in the streets jumping up and using the same defence. We are poor, illiterate and know nothing about copyright laws. We are just trying to feed our families. Would this make their crime less heinous?
The sad part in Prayzah’s case, if you can call it that, came out in the midst of the biggest cry by local musicians about piracy. Albert Nyathi, Chase Skuza, and a host of other big musicians have come out guns blazing denouncing piracy. What will they say now that one of them has been caught violating copyright laws? What will Zimura say?
A public statement from those that are vocal about copyright infringement would go a long way here. Silence would mean Zimura and other musicians condone this kind of behaviour.
This year alone there has been more than a dozen workshops and public discussions on intellectual property rights. A lot of musicians have attended these workshops and have come out of these workshops blasting piracy, and even calling on Government to come up with stiffer sentences to try and curb this heinous crime against creative people.
However, this case is just the tip of an iceberg as many other musicians, big names in the sector for that matter, are also said to be guilty of the same crime. Stealing other creative people’s work. It is called stealing and there is no nice word for it.
There is a section of people who believe Jah Prayzah should just have acknowledged Samini on his album. But it is not as simple as that. One needs to seek permission from the originator or owner of the creative work first. Permission has to be granted first, otherwise it will still be stealing.
The infringement of copyright laws is rampant in the music industry, especially among our urban groovers and within the Zim dancehall sector. The young musicians are just doing what they want with other people’s creations. The thinking is that foreign artistes will never find out and even if they do they will be either too busy or too far to do anything.
Zimura has a lot of work to do, especially if the association is really serious about combating piracy. It’s fight against copyright laws infringements should start with the musicians themselves.
Once our musicians are able to respect intellectual property rights of artistes from other countries then we can start talking about their own rights. You can’t want to enjoy the very rights you are robbing someone else simply because that someone does not live in the same country as you. Rights are universal. Full stop.
Copyright law infringement is also rife in the book industry. A lot of writers are plagiarising work and getting away with it. It is also rife in the film sector where a lot of film makers are just taking songs and music and using it as soundtracks to their films without asking for permission first.
It doesn’t matter whether one acknowledges the musician in the film, permission to use the music has to be sought and granted first.
Food for thought!
