Malawi music burning centres blame COSOMA
Owners of some music burning centres who experienced the wrath of Copyright Society of Malawi (COSOMA) in the city of Blantyre a week ago have blamed the association for lack of effectiveness.
The blame comes following the fact that only four centres’ equipments were confiscated out of many illegal burning centres in the city.
One of the affected people (name withheld), who practised his business in the city of Blantyre said he was surprised to see his equipment confiscated when just a few meters away from his business centre there is also another place offering similar services.
“Go to Mbayani market. You will witness for yourself how close these businesses are. Does this mean COSOMA is not aware of such malpractice?
“I am not pointing fingers at any one involved in this business but the fact is that COSOMA did not trade very well in this confiscation exercise,” he explained.
He added that this time around, COSOMA was not as usual as its officials only went to the selected places unlike in the past when it could go for every corner of the similar services.
According to the reports, out of a number of illegal burning centres in the commercial city of Blantyre, the officials from COSOMA only managed to confiscate equipment at one place in Mbayani, one at Chemusa, Ndirande and Limbe making the figure of four places.
According to one of the victims, after confiscation of the equipment COSOMA demands an amount of K30, 000 for the release of the equipment which is not clear whether the charge depends on the quality or the volume of the material confiscated.
However, it is also not clear whether COSOMA releases the equipment to the owner and allows them to conduct the business again when the money is settled.
Efforts to talk to COSOMA officials proved futile as both their office and mobile numbers were out of reach.
Among the equipments confiscated are computers sets, blank CDs and other related materials.
Recently, local artists have blamed the association for not being in the for-front protecting their sole proprietorship. This made secular artist like Joe Gwaladi, gospel renowned artist Thoccoh Katimba, to mention a few, seen in the streets of the country selling and promoting their music.
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