Artists, stop the bickering for a moment. There is nothing the art sector is going through which sports hasn’t. Both art and sport are fundamentally about talent – away from the classroom – which translate into entertainment. Both belong to the entertainment industry. In the arts, I am a consumer. A fan. Whatever I know is what I watch and hear, so am not qualified to give an educated opinion on what should or shouldn’t be done to restore sanity among artists.
My world, technical expertise, fanaticism, passion, experience and legal knowledge is largely in sports. Because of the similarities in these two complimentary sectors (art and sports) including the target mass market which is the largest consumer of both products, I will lend a hand to our friends in the art world.
In March this year, two separate bills tabled in parliament resulted into one sports bill. One was by government, the other was a private members bill. Parliament set up a “committee.on education and sports” to harmonize both bills. After decades of neglect, for the first time in six decades sports was debated in parliament as a national issue to warrant a new Sports Law to outlaw the archaic NCS Sports Act of 1964. Following various recommendations that were a result of years of discussion by sports stakeholders (sports federations), the proposed new bill was passed. It has already been reviewed by the President of Uganda who has recommended a few adjustments before he can sign and ascent the bill into law.
As it were, no longer are we in sports narrowing down our frustrations and quarrels to personalities. Individual administrators can be hated, disliked or whatever, but we are no longer consumed with divisive talk because the law has all the answers and solutions we ever wanted. Similar to the artists demand for ‘copyright’ law, we now have a legal provision in sports that will PROTECT THE ECONOMY OF THE SPORTS sector (sports copyright) through prohibiting electronic media from producing sports events and competitions other than the concerned sports federation. It is now an offence for anyone to capture (produce) a sports event without authorization. Among the punitive punishments is imprisonment not exceeding 5 years.
The other areas that have been touched by the bill registration of federations, management of sports infrastructure, commercialization, violence and many others.
Yes, if artists can recognize that they are not an island and are honest about their so called mission to secure COPYRIGHT law for the benefit of all in the induatry, I challenge them to pick a leaf from we in sports. This is the yardstick you should use to know who in the art sector is pushing for a personal agenda and therefore must be rejected and who is for the industry. Anyone focusing on names (individuals) and not the mulamwa which is the law for everyone must be isolated. That is the real enemy of the entertainment industry. The law sets up structures for sound administration and commercialization.
My two pence.
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