ZIMBABWE’S top media houses have threatened to take legal action against digital platforms wont on stealing their content.
In a legal notice yesterday, ZimInd Publishers, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, Zimpapers and Business Times said media houses had copyrights provided for in the Copyrights and Neighbouring Rights Act [Chapter 26:05] which protect their content from theft.
But some social media accounts have been “mining” content from the long-established media houses without their consent and distributing it without attributing the source of the information.
The media houses said this was in breach of the Copyrights and Neighbouring Rights Act and attracted a fine of U$2 000.
“Failure to adhere to this notice will attract appropriate legal action against whoever is concerned and we will seek all available damages and remedies to protect our interests. This notice serves as a pre-suit for a lawsuit against the perpetrators concerned,” the media houses said in their legal notice.
“We are not only duly registered with the Zimbabwe Media Commission, but we also invest in content which is not for free and can only be reproduced, distributed, circulated or shared when authority to do so is granted.”
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The media houses said piracy was a serious breach of the law.
“The penalty for this breach, which is a reasonable royalty expected for use of the content in the manner currently being done, is worth US$2 000 per month. This equates to the sum we would have ordinarily billed you had you applied for approval,” they said.
“We shall not hesitate to prosecute any person or entity found distributing our content without our consent. This includes WhatsApp group administrators whose groups were created for the purposes of distributing news and/or for the purposes of the republication or distribution of any of our content.
“In these circumstances, we hereby demand, as we hereby do, an immediate cease-and-desist of any future unauthorised republication, distribution, circulation and sharing of content belonging to us, individually or combined, with immediate effect,” the notice added.