Property rights event disappoints

NAMIBIA’S commemoration of Intellectual Property Rights Day on Saturday was disappointing by all accounts.

• THORSTEN SCHIER

The event, which was meant to acknowledge the right of creators to own their works, was marred by a lack of organisation and interest.
The actual World Intellectual Property Day was marked on April 26, and the event was postponed ‘due to the public holidays’, according to an events organiser.
The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), of which Namibia is a member, makes it mandatory for each member state to forward a report on how the day was celebrated in the country.
‘The report should be accompanied, where possible, by recorded visual images of the proceedings, hence the march and the gathering at the Windhoek High School,’ read an official memo.
This possibly explains the hasty organisation of the event.
The proceedings consisted of a march from Nictus to WHS followed by an all-day event including stands and entertainment at the school’s rugby stadium.
But Windhoek residents failed to turn up for the march, which was mainly populated by cultural groups who were paid to perform at the stadium anyway.
Only two organisations managed to set up stands in the stadium.
Musicians are amongst those hit hardest by copyright breaches, especially by people downloading their music illegally.
But local artists, who have been crying foul about the practice, failed to pitch to the event.
Speaking to an almost empty stadium, Minister of Information and Communication Technology Joel Kaapanda said the ‘world is obliged to acknowledge the great efforts of those whose intellectual property works have made life easier, more interesting, pleasant and worth living for us all’.
He said if intellectual property rights were not respected, ‘we would have to do without music, books, computer programs, movies, video games, trademarks, patents and industrial design’.
This was because owners would not benefit from their work and so have no incentive to continue to produce.
Reading out the message of Francis Curry, Director General of the WIPO, the Minister quoted him as saying that ‘intellectual property creates wealth, empowers creative genius, offers job opportunities, encourages entrepreneurship and… thereby reduces poverty and hunger’.