Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma) said on Monday that it is open to engage creatives on various issues to understand how it operates.
The development comes as some creatives continue to allege that the copyright body lacks transparency in its affairs and that it favours some artists in its distribution of royalties.
“I have sold so many copies of my films on the market but I am surprised that I have received nothing. This is not fair, we sweat a lot to come up with the work,” one filmmaker, who did not want to be named, said.
Last week another filmmaker accused Cosoma of failing to provide proper information as regards distribution of money for blank media levy and that they had plans to march to their offices to present a petition.
But Cosoma’s Head of Documentation and Distribution Shadrick Kumtengo, who last week admitted that as a copyright body, they have more work to do in terms of sensitising creatives or royalties and other copyright issues, said the body is open to hear from artists.
“We are always open and we try as much as possible to explain how we operate. Complaints will always be there and artists have a right to get information from us,” Kumtengo said.
The development comes barely five days after Cosoma disbursed K917 million for blank media levy for the period October 2023 to March 2024 with a total of 2,806 in the disciplines of music, literary works and films benefiting.
“All the royalties that we distribute, we always make sure creatives are aware of them. We share information and what artists need to know is that their works can only receive blank media levy if it is distributed and shared and without that then it is difficult,” he said.
Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) and Cosoma recommenced collection of a levy on media storage devices in 2020.
The levy on media storage devices, also known as Private Copy Levy, is charged on purchases of recordable media as compensation to the rights holders for loss of income due to copyright infringements.
Questions however continue to be raised by artists now and again on how Cosoma calculates or comes up with the amounts when it comes to blank media levy let alone other royalties.
Kumtengo said Blank media levy comes from an economic right of production under section 29 of the Copyright Act 2016.
“As such, all data for distribution of the funds from the same is collected from reproduction streams i.e. softcopy operators (burning centres), ringtones, downloads etc.
“These streams have different points and coe-ficients in our distribution software,” he said.
He said in terms of distribution, the reproduction data collected form the mentioned streams is inputed in their system on day-to-day basis (real time) as they receive.
“The in-flow of data from all corners across the country converges together and is converted into point values and later the system makes systematic calculations and allocation to the works depending on frequency. The more frequency a work gets the more the allocation of the funds,” Kumtengo explained.
He added that Blank media levy just like any other remuneration or royalty paid by Cosoma is paid to works which have been used in a specified period.
“These remunerations are paid regardless of whether an artist is a member or not. All what the society requires is that the beneficiary make declarations about the rightholders who participated in the creation of the work,”
