FIM

The Cameroon gov­ern­ment has just tak­en a deter­min­ing stance in the affair which brought music righthold­ers and Orange and MTN tele­com oper­a­tors into con­flict, by forc­ing both oper­a­tors to respect copy­right and relat­ed rights legislation.

For years, these two com­pa­nies had indulged in pira­cy by sell­ing pro­tect­ed record­ings to their cus­tomers, via down­load­ing or stream­ing, with­out autho­ri­sa­tion from righthold­ers and with­out pay­ing anything.

The deci­sion will enable Cameroon musi­cians to receive at last the rev­enue to which they are entitled

The inter­na­tion­al protest cam­paign insti­gat­ed by FIM and its mem­bers fol­low­ing the call of the Cameroon Musicians’ Union SYCAMU con­vinced the Cameroon pres­i­den­cy of the need to bring par­ties to the nego­ti­at­ing table to put an end to the cri­sis. The deci­sion, which will enable Cameroon musi­cians to receive at last the rev­enue to which they are enti­tled, is also a recog­ni­tion of their place in the cre­ative econ­o­my, not just in Cameroon, by, more wide­ly, in Africa and the rest of the world.