This includes putting in place legal texts on copyright and related rights that allow management structures and companies to intervene to collect these rights, indicated these experts gathered at the Renaissance cinema on the occasion of a round table on “Copyright and related rights: Operating methods and post-health crisis situations”, as part of the first edition of ROOTS Rabat “Pan-African Cinema Days”.
“Cinema in Africa is a thriving industry that generates significant economic value. It is therefore essential today to put in place legal and institutional frameworks that make it possible to remunerate the creators of African cinematographic works,” said Samuel Sangwa, Africa Regional Director of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC).
“In Africa, there are 37 copyright societies including the Moroccan Copyright Office (BMDA). However, there is still a lack of mechanisms that allow African creators to live from their works and become financially independent,” he noted, adding that it would be interesting to adopt laws that stipulate “fair remuneration, and this in all countries of the continent.”
For his part, the Director General of the Senegalese Society for Copyright and Neighboring Rights (SODAV), Aly Bathily, indicated that “if certain rights can be managed individually, collective management is sometimes the only alternative for remunerating rights holders, whether through fair remuneration or remuneration for private copying.”
Mr. Bathily also stressed “the need for harmonization of legislation within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), for a secure and attractive African market”, affirming that “the future of this sector, as complex as it is transversal, is played out through the legal instrument in the continent”.
For her part, the acting director of the BMDA, Dalal Mhamdi Alaoui, who presented in her speech the Moroccan experience in the protection of copyright, explained that “the collection of these rights in the audiovisual sector is done by the BMDA with cinema and audiovisual operators”, adding that “during the period of the health crisis linked to Covid-19, the BMDA carried out regular distributions so that the authors of audiovisual works could receive remuneration for their work”.
“At the BMDA, we carry out regular actions to encourage operators in the audiovisual sector to pay royalties,” she added, explaining that “this helps maintain the creativity of performing artists, scriptwriters, directors and actors and also allows them to live from their creations.”
Participants in this round table also recommended raising awareness among stakeholders in this sector and explaining their rights to them through innovative digital content that can reach a wide audience.
Organized at the initiative of the Hiba Foundation with the support of the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication, within the framework of “Rabat African Capital of Culture in 2022”, the first edition of ROOTS Rabat is an event promoting the know-how of the African continent, fostering the creation of synergies and South-South cooperation which contribute to the sustainability of the African film industry.
The event, which takes place at the Renaissance cinema-café La Scène as well as in other locations in the capital, offers a scientific program composed of thematic round tables, technical master classes and workshops, in addition to an artistic program that includes a series of screenings of African feature films and short films open to the public.
2024-08-23 05:26:21