Artists given tips on going digital for festival

With the National Arts Festival creating new spaces for artists and performers to showcase their work during the Covid-19 outbreak by going digital, organisers of the Makhanda event hosted a webinar to inform those showing their work online about how rights and royalties can be protected.

Hosted by festival executive director Nobesuthu Rayi, a panel of experts in the fields of copyright law and other related legal issues gave advice on how to protect the rights of works to be showcased.

With fewer than 50 days to go before the virtual festival kicks off, Rayi said it was important for artists and performers to hone their skills in understanding the technical and legal aspects of making their work and having it streamed online.

“Using another artist’s music or text or borrowing visual elements for your online content may attract issues around rights and royalties” Rayi said.

Producer, designer and director Jade Bowers of Jade Bowers Design and Management said copyright and licensing of ownership of work were vitally important for artists, authors and performers.

“Being able to know your own work, the intrinsic value of artistic work and to be able to be compensated for your work are very important factors to consider [when streaming work],” Bowers said.

Working in the department of arts and culture at the University of Johannesburg, Bowers said it was often the case that issues of copyright and ownership were raised after the fact.

“If you don’t know your rights, you can’t protect your work,” she said.

Attorney and Soslea Legal and Advisory Pty Ltd director Nothando Migogo said it was important for any artist, including those taking part in the virtual festival, to know and understand what they were signing before going into a contract with a service provider such as the festival.

“Key issues include how long the contract is, ownership, things like exploitation and what you are allowing them to do with the work.

“You are entering into an arrangement to give something away so you need to understand how this will work.

“This falls in the realm of contract law ... you need to get professional help,” Migogo said.

Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) legal services GM Chola Makgamathe said the use of artistic work during the virtual arts festival would be dependent on the contract entered into with the festival, and it was important for artists and performers to secure the rights or get permission to use other works that would be used.

“This is very important when using work online or posting it,” Makgamathe said.

The supervisor for theatricals, visual arts and general licensing at the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (Dalro), Elroy Bell, said there were ways to watermark videos and images and this should be done before posting or streaming anything online.

“Artists, authors and performers are digitising their work to reach more audiences, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, so it is vital to protect the integrity of work and prevent copying of it.

“We need to change the mindset [of the audience] to ‘I did not produce the work therefore I need to pay [to view it]’,” Bell said.

He said the streaming or posting of online content, especially during the digital arts festival, must and would be hosted on protective platforms.

With a closing date of May 15 for work to be submitted to the festival for its programme, contracts would be dealt with individually, Rayi said.