Joyah fights film rights infringement
Filmmaker Charles Shemu Joyah had a rude awakening when he discovered that his movie, The Last Fishing Boat has been uploaded on online streaming platform, YouTube without his knowledge and consent.
The development forced the film director to take steps to seek redress from YouTube and after six hours the online platform informed him of the removal of the movie from their platform. YouTube indicated that the film was uploaded by a person identified as Joseph Magawa.
Sounding relieved, Joyah said he will not take any action against the person behind the infringement, but warned that if the conduct continues he will sue for damages.
“I didn’t know that the film had been put on YouTube until someone alerted me on a WhatsApp forum. After verification, I immediately raised an infringement notice with YouTube. The process involves filling a form on the YouTube site, giving your details and the details of the link of the infringing video,” he said.
Joyah said he is lucky that he registers his productions with the Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma) which made it easy for YouTube to verify that his complaint was genuine. He said if his complaint was contested, he would have had the task to prove that the film was indeed his.
The film maker said it is difficult to ascertain how much he stood to lose out if the film was maintained on the site since most people watch from the channel for free. By the time it was brought down, the film had recorded over 1900 views.
In her reaction, Cosoma executive director Dora Makwinja said it is important for local creatives to register their content with bodies such as Cosoma as they become helpful when they encounter situations such as these.
She said: “To be a member is one thing and to register your content is another thing too. You can chose to register your content but not be a member with us. This helps to authenticate any claims you make against any type of infringement. That is why it was easy for us to help Joyah.”
The film, a 2015 production, was recently brought into the limelight courtesy a short clip from the movie which became a social media craze called Mustafa. This prompted Joyah to bring the film back on the market and, according to him, it posted impressive sales especially in the first two weeks.
