The Avenue: John Max VS Everyone…ROUND 2: FIGHT!

The Namibian Society of Composers and Authors of Music (Nascam) Chief Executive Officer thereof…Eino-John Max is in the news. I mean yeah, he’s always in the news for ripping off musicians and not having a clue about how to protect voice over artists and other creatives but this time around…he is really in the news. Apparently, according the learned gentleman Mr Eino John Max, Namibian artists are confused about what copyright and intellectual property are. He added that Namibian artists do not understand why it is important to register their work. He went on a “Copyright for dummies” rant explaining that Nascam is responsible for administering its members’ rights by registering their musical work, with the primary goal of collecting and distributing royalties to individual rights holders or serving the interests of authors, composers and publishers of music.

Ok, I guess its state the obvious day! Allow me to have fun with this one. State the obvious…let’s see, oh how about this one “EVERYONE is unhappy with your work sir Max”. It really is no secret that there is a massive degree of unhappiness with the effectiveness of NASCAM and how they conduct their business. Basically confidence is low when it comes to the credibility of NASCAM. But abuti CEO, Mr Eino John Max insists on an extensive “Copyright for Dummies” lesson.

Allow me to quote the omes:

“Intellectual property rights are economic benefit rights generated when objects or tangible properties are created, and these rights are divided into two categories – copyright and industrial property rights. Copyright only protects expressions and not ideas, it protects ‘originality’ but not ideas”

Oh well…let’s leave it at that. That’s a conversation artists and creative heads will have to anchor themselves.