PIRATED CD/DVDS STILL BEING SOLD

MBABANE- The ability to understand what a target audience wantS and then to go about crafting an appropriately, exquisite product is rare and commendable.

 What is not commendable is someone then steal this product, sell it and earn money from your hard work. The Eswatini entertainment industry was celebrating last year as an amendment to the law was made in favour of protecting their work. However, six months down the line there hasn’t been any change in as far as local entertainers’ work being duplicated and plagiarised.

The Constitution reads “A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable to a fine not exceeding E20 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three years or to both such fine and imprisonment in respect of each article to which the offence relates.”
People who will be found guilty are those:

*    Make the fraudulent copy.
*    Import or export the infringed copies.
*   In the course of business, expose or exhibit in public and/or distribute.
*   Sell the item or let it for hire.
*   Distribute the copy to an extent that the owner of the copyright is prejudicially affected.
However, it is worth noting that when the Entertainment Desk undertook investigation towards finding out if the numbers of pirated CD’s  had dropped, it was noted that there were no changes regarding this matter. In fact, in every street corner in Manzini and Mbabane, especially the bus rank, pirated CD’s are being sold daily .

Towards the end of 2017, Larry Mhlanga, who is a veteran in the entertainment industry and Founder of Tall Tree Management, reported a  male  to the police,after having  found him selling pirated copies of ‘Sands’ album titled ‘Sands of time’. At that time the law had not been passed so the suspect was only detained and later released.

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