The Copyright Society of Botswana-COSBOTS has called on artists to continue registering their works under their society.
Speaking at the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority award ceremony yesterday in Gaborone, CEO of COSBOTS Thato Mokobi, said royalties create a lifeline for artists through their creative works as well as adding to economic diversification through employment creation.
CosBots is a copyright society of Botswana set up for the purpose of the collection and distribution of royalties for all copyrighted artistic work like poetry, craft, visual arts, pottery, literal works and the most obvious one—music.
CosBots aims to collect money from people who play or use copyrighted work publicly, like combi drivers, restaurant owners, bars, radio stations and stores like Choppies, amongst others.
The non-profiting organization was set up in 2008, but started to officially operate in October of 2011, and they are hoping to start collecting royalties in July of this year— after licensing the users of copyrighted works and going through all the stages of sensitizing the public and all parties concerned.
The organization was given a grant of P7 million by the Ministry of Trade and Industry to last for a period of three years after Parliament passed the Copyright and Neigbouring Rights (Amendment) Act in 2005. COSBOTS distributed royalties to musicians for the first time last year in February, and for the second time in September.
