Piracy-Copyrights

By Jackson Allers

Hello and Welcome. From the UN Radio Studios in Kosovo….

Pirated products like CD’s and DVD’s are big business in Kosovo. But there may soon be an end to this as Kosovo’s Ministry of Culture has prepared a copyright law protecting the intellectual property rights of artist’s.

Hazan Zekaj is the director of Kosovo’s Ministry of Culture:

Zekaj

“This law is in parliamentary procedure and very soon it will be signed – This legal document will be very important here in Kosovo.”

For Kosovo’s music community, the passage of such a law has many implications; the sale of licensed copies of musical compositions would presumably generate additional income. The copyright law would also contribute to Government revenue as a fraction of the proceeds from licensed music sales would be plowed back into the government’s budget. In an interview with the television show, ‘Ekonomia e re’ well-known Albanian singer, Xuxi says he expects good things from the passage of such a law.

Xuxi

“I believe this law is very important and with it many things will improve, the approval of this law will make more clear to us where the money from art-work will go.”

Luljeta Bajcinovci heads the Authors Agency of Kosova or AAK, and under the new copyright law the AAK will be responsible for fielding allegations of copyright abuse.

Bajcinovci

“If you have a song that has been pirated, you must inform agency of the abuse. But, you have to be a member of the agency to be protected by the law. When an abuse has been verified the agency will then take action, which are normally court procedures.”

The Authors Agency of Kosova played a key role in drafting the new copyright law, and Temporary Media Commissioner Robert Gilette has joined a group of Kosovo broadcasters who disagree with this decision.

Gilette questions whether artists and broadcasters would support the continuation of the AAK, which is essentially a holdover from the former Yugoslav copyright agency.

Robert Gillete

“What the broadcasters would like to see is an open competitive transparent process to see who can be set up in the most professional, and transparent way, with the fairest broadcast and authors’ rights organization – copyright organization. (Instead) the law picks one organization which may or may not be the legal successor to the old Yugoslav agency, and would expand that from a handful of people to a very large and powerful organization.”

Regardless of which agency is ultimately chosen to deal with Kosovo’s copyright issues, a clampdown on cheap pirated CD’s and DVD’s will be inevitable.

Again, Luljeta Bajcinovci of the Authors Agency of Kosovo:

Bajcinovci

“For the ones who don’t respect the copyrights there will not be a justification that there is no law anymore.”

Prishtina residents interviewed had mixed reactions where copyright issues were concerned.

Vox pop

“I think is good to have this law, because artists producing CD’s in this business there are big problems - it is not rewarding, which means they make CD’s which are duplicated illegally and they don’t earn anything.”

Vox pop

“This law seems reasonable for one part of the population, but bad for others that don’t have good living conditions and are not able to buy CD’s as they buy them now in the store’s and streets.”

Observers say that Kosovo’s local and international customers will be hard-pressed to pay almost 20 Euros for ‘legal’ CD’s when the same pirated CD’s are selling on the streets for 2 Euros.

Unfortunately none of the Prishtina shop owners wanted to give an interview. But, street piracy is only the most blatant form of copyright infringement, according to one street-wise consumer:

Vox pop

“For 20 Euros? I don’t know, if I like it I will buy it, or I will get it on the Internet.”

With this new copyright law almost in place a new challenge is already waiting Kosovo’s policy makers. Online music piracy is proving to be a huge challenge to the music industry both in the United States and the United Kingdom. Estimates put annual sales losses of up to 4 billion dollars from on-line music piracy. Independent artists argue that online music sharing helps to increase their popularity.

UN Radio will keep you informed as the debate continues here in Kosovo.