By John Ekongo
WINDHOEK
A second copyright organisation to be known as the Namibian Reproduction Rights Organisation (NAMRRO) is on the cards. It will in no way duplicate nor replace the existing Namibian Society of Composers and Authors of Music (NASCAM).
This was revealed to New Era by Moses Moses, the interim secretary of the soon to be launched organisation.
In essence his organisation will see to it that institutions such as schools, public and tertiary libraries, printing houses and bookshops, no longer make photocopies of published works or reproduce any artistic, dramatic and photographic works without consent from the authors and publishers. In this instance NAMRRO will act as the middleman for such consent and permission.
When probed as to the reasons for the establishment of a second copyright organisation Moses said the new organisation will be a completely “autonomous and independent organisation”, which will source funding through sponsorship and is fully recognised by authorities.
“The initiative was necessitated after realising authors and publishers of literary and artistic works were not well represented regarding copyright of their works.
“At present the authors and publishers of these works normally make use of their legal representatives who, for obvious reasons, are practically not able to monitor the ‘fair use or abuse’ of the works in question, until someone else brings such acts to their attention,” Moses said.
However, NAMRRO would first have to get a mandate from the rights holders in order to carry out its specific copyright protection functions.
NAMRRO will soon have a series of meetings with relevant stakeholders to inform them about the planned strategies as well as to synthesise stakeholders and brief them accordingly.
The founding meeting of the organisation is to be held next month.
The approval of the organisation’s statutes, election of a controlling board and the signing up of prospective members will be a priority, it is understood.
Moses indicates that NAMRRO will largely concentrate on representing rights of authors and publishers of literary, artistic and dramatic works in the country, where as NASCAM only deals with the protection of musical works.