How do I manage and distribute authors’ rights for artists in Africa in an increasingly digital world? This is one of the debates that excited the participants in the sixth edition of Moca, the African creativity movement, which was held last week in Paris. Platforms and telephone operators are increasingly using the work of artists and artists need to take greater advantage of it. This is particularly the ambition of the African Union.
However, if the Covid-19 pandemic is a difficult time for African artists – often weaned from performances – it has the effect of speeding up the digitalisation of the distribution of their work. New actors, new working methods and also new challenges for the distribution of the fruits of this work. Alain Bidjeck is the founder of Moca, the forum dedicated to Africa’s cultural industries and the diaspora.
“We are in an era where culture is being digitized enormously, so the revenue linked to distribution is becoming increasingly important, and therefore the return in terms of copyright is necessarily an important issue,” says Alain Bidjeck. “The difficulty we observe, both from the point of view of the creators and the collective associations, is that they have a hard time understanding this incredible spread where the giants on the net and the mobile operators have taken a place. very important and with which the balance of power is difficult to manage. So that means there is a challenge for the sector to organize and reconsider its restructuring in the face of these new digital challenges. As we have seen in Europe, the entire European Commission had to mobilize with the support of collective associations to make YouTube falter a bit. “
Terrifying progress on copyright
These collective associations, in other words the copyright offices, are still too weak and too rare on the continent, even if it progresses.
“Collecting societies develop a little at different speeds. BBDA (Burkinabé Copyright Office, editor’s note) is extremely effective. Even in Algeria “, explains Alain Bidjeck, who continues:” In South Africa, although it (the collective management company, editor’s note) is not entirely exemplary, it still pays a lot of rights for its artists. But there is a reality, I am thinking, for example, of Socoda (the Congolese association for copyright and related rights, the editor’s remark) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has real challenges, the same in Cameroon and in other countries. But there is a desire for structuring, because we must first understand these new tools and this new language in the face of the challenges, and we must build a balance of power to move the lines of the big operators. “
Encourage states to better manage copyright
Changing lines is the role of the African Union, and especially Angela Martins, head of the AU’s culture department. In 2016, it launched Pipo, the pan-African organization for intellectual property rights, the purpose of which is precisely to call on states to introduce tools for dealing with copyright.
“It is clear that states are ready to set up institutions and mechanisms to promote the rights of their artists. My feeling is that artists must be supported and have institutional contacts so that they know their rights better. And this is the kind of activity that Pipo will perform, at least we hope so, says Angela Martins. “During my mandate, we therefore created this instrument that states can duplicate or that they can use as inspiration to strengthen their own legislation in the field of intellectual property rights. “
The only problem is that Pipo, which was adopted in 2016, is still waiting for fifteen ratifications from AU countries to exist and begin its work.
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