VIDEO: Artistes, actors demonstrate over piracy
Some of the artistes mourning the apparent death of the copyright law. Photo by Micheal Kakumirizi
What you need to know:
Comedy artiste and musician, Mr Kato Lubwama said their industry was under attack vowing not to bark off until a solution is found
KAMPALA.
Film and music artistes on Thursday at National theatre staged a peaceful demonstration over court’s decision to stop police from arresting film pirates.
The actors and actresses dressed in black outfits inscribed with words; “Stop piracy” pointed out that they were mourning for the increasing threat posed on the movie industry without any protection.
“We invest a lot of money to make a movie, at the end, we harvest nothing because of film pirates,” said Mr Saka Ssempijja, Director of the Standard Films, based in Katwe
"I have workers that I pay every month. I ask government to save our industry because it gains a lot from our taxes,” bitterly complained," he added.
Comedy artiste and musician, Mr Kato Lubwama said their industry was under attack vowing not to bark off until a solution is found.
“I know our government listens faster to actions than words. I know we are over 40,000 actors and musicians. We shall one day go on the streets to fight for our rights if the government does not help us quickly,” said Mr Lubwama.
“We have invested a lot of money and time in this movie industry. We cannot accept to die poor because of Indians and other film plagiarizers,” he added.
Mr Bbosa Sserunkuma of the Zubair Family, said as movie makers, they pay a lot of taxes to the government, but blame it for doing less to protect the industry from “selfish, greedy and unprofessional people duplicating their works.”
Mr Bonnie Kasujja, Uganda Federation of Movie industry head of operations warned workers MP Hon Sam Lyomoki for rather playing a “cat and mice game” when their rights are being violated.
“Mr Lyomoki is joking. We shall die with him if he does not stop supporting pirate. We cannot let them [pirates] kill our industry as we look on,” Mr Kasujja remarked.
Background
The Commercial Court recently issued a temporary order halting the operations of the Uganda Federation of Movie Industry (UFMI) until the disposal of a case filed by the National Union of Creative Performing Artists and Workers (NUCPAAW).
