That Africa is rich with talents is an open truth. Many legends have lived and died very poor. They made great music, but never made money out of it. So Google wants to help Africa to make sure that all the artists get rewarded for their works.
In a blog entry, Google stated that in “order to address some of these challenges, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), has undertaken a number of initiatives intended to benefit musicians in Africa. Among the initiatives, is a collaboration between WIPO and Google focused on building software that will make it easier, faster, and simpler for musicians and composers in 11 West African countries to get paid for the use of their music worldwide – and help increase their music’s visibility internationally at the same time”
According to Google Africa, 11 countries made a move for this and they include: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. With Google as its pro bono technology partner, WIPO will improve its existing rights-management software to do just that.
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Google concludes in the blog that the aim “is to make it easier and more efficient for artists to get paid for their work. Performers, composers, record labels and music publishers will be able to register their music and have that information automatically shared and globally accessible”.
Google continues to innovate in its efforts to add value in Africa. It would be good to see how this will work out. The challenge in Africa with copyright is not a technology problem, but a legal one. If you do not have a legal system to enforce the rights, all the technologies will fail.
Tekedia thinks only a strong legal system will solve this problem. But never doubt Google because they have proven time over again that they see things beyond where everyone sees.
