By Sanna Jawara, Copyright Officer
As part of its legal mandates relating to visibility and awareness campaign to spur our creative, cultural and artistic industries to embrace the art of innovation and creativity towards achieving the desired sustainable development objectives of the country, the Copyright Office under National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC), on 28th January 2020, Signed MOU with –Capital MIC Power, located on 6th Albion Street, Banjul.
The event, which shall be replicated in other regions of the country, marks the beginning of series of activities lined up for the year 2020 by the Copyright Office and shall see presence of Copyright and Related Right activities across the country in accordance with 57 (1)(a-e) of the 2004 Copyright Act and section 5 of the 2018 Copyright Regulations.
Similar provisions are contained in section 56 of Africa Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) Model Law on Copyright and Related Rights, 2019, WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT), World Trade Organisation Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIP), Berne Convention on protection of literary and artistic works among intellectual property related right laws at domestic and international level.
Below is the text of the MOU to be signed with all regional representatives;
This Memorandum of Understanding between Copyright Office of The Gambia and–Capital MIC Power is inspired and not limited to the following;
1-Aware of the importance of intellectual property (IP) law, especially Copyright and Related Rights dealing with legal rights of cultural players, artistic and creative industries towards sustainable development of any given nation across the globe, including developing countries like The Gambia
2-Aware of objectives of intellectual property law, especially Copyright Related Rights are not limited to protection and promotion of economic development through industrialization, but also provides strong incentive for investment in research and development resulting in innovation, industrial growth and economic progress of the nation, thus the benefits of IP system or regime could only be fully utilized by countries equipped with trained scientific and technical persons along with adequate basic industrial infrastructure
3-Aware of the historical development of copyright regime and access to work as the key to promote creativity resulting in social, cultural and industrial development of a society. To achieve this, works must be made available at affordable cost to all those who are in need. Affordability varies from country to country depending on social and economic conditions.
4-Aware of having a robust public domain and its constant expansion as an important requirement to promote creativity as availability of works in public domain ensures free access to works for its enjoyment resulting in creativity, hence one of the functions of copyright law is to maintain a robust public domain, which shall further ensure creation of adequate industrial infrastructure 5-It is equally important for the purpose of making the works available to the public, as such protection of original works provides adequate incentive for the industrial development
6-Section 57(1)(a-e) of the 2004 Copyright Act empowers among others to be responsible for all matters affecting Copyright in The Gambia, to monitor and ensure Gambia’s position in relation to international conventions and advise Government accordingly, enlighten and inform the public on matters relating Copyrights, to maintain an effective data bank on authors and other owners of Copyright works
7-Similar provisions are made in section 56 (1)(a-g) of ARIPO Model Law on Copyright and Related Rights 2019, with specific reference to having branches or regional offices as it may deem necessary for proper carrying of its functions
8-Section 5(1)(a) of 2018 Copyright Regulations empowers the office to organise training programs on copyright matters at all level in collaboration or association with other relevant institutions if necessary
(b) provided for organisation of competitions, contests, give prizes and awards
Therefore, the parties hereby append their signatures as per guided by the spirit and objectives or text of this memorandum of understanding (MOU) as follows;
1-to serve as regional representative and focal point for Copyright Office for the interest and welfare of stakeholders, the nation and humanity at large
2-that parties shall strive at all times to avoid conflict of interest as far as performance of their duties are concerned
9-the focal representatives shall serve as point of contact for all activities to be embark on by the Copyright Office and they shall be responsible for organisation/mobilisation of participants for awareness campaign, registration of all folklore and cultural expressions within their jurisdictions,training/ capacity building programmes, competition/ contest, award related activities in their respective regions and any other assignment deemed fit and necessary for smooth and proper operations of the Copyright Office
Date—-
Name and signature of Copyright Office
Name and signature of Copyright Regional Representative
Below is the proposed timetable;
This timetable schedule shall serve as ground levelling exercise meant to initiate and build stronger partnership at grass root, community, village, district and regional level on matters of Copyright and Related Rights in The Gambia and beyond.
The focal representatives shall serve as point of contact for all activities to be embark on by the Copyright Office and they shall be responsible for organisation/mobilisation of participants for awareness campaign, registration of all folklore and cultural expressions within their jurisdictions, training/ capacity building programmes, competition/ contest, award related activities in their respective regions and any other assignment deemed fit and necessary for smooth and proper operations of the Copyright Office
The scheduled date for signing of the MOU is as follows;
1-Banjul City Council 28th January 2020, time to be determined
2-Kanifing Municipality 29th January 2020, time to be determined
3-Brikama / West Coast Region 30th January 2020, time to be determined
4-Kerewan/ North Bank Region 13th February 2020, time to be determined
5-Mansakonko/ Lower River Region 13th February 2020, time to be determined
6-Janjanbureh/ Central River Region 14th February 2020, time to be determined
7-Basse / Upper River Region 15th February 2020, time to be determined
