VZCZCXYZ0005
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKI #0640/01 2190655
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 060655Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8269
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC

UNCLAS KINSHASA 000640 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON BBSR EIND EINT EINV CG
SUBJECT: Piracy in the Congolese Music Industry:  it hurts 
foreigners and locals alike 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary:  The vibrant recording industry has long been an 
integral part of Congolese culture.  Due to the rampant piracy of 
cassette tapes and CD's, however, that industry has ceased to exist. 
 Congolese musicians and producers are generally apathetic to the 
problem, having found ways to offset, at least in part, their loss 
of copyright revenue.  Laws are in place to protect intellectual 
property rights, but the penalties are light and seldom enforced. 
Although some positive signs are on the horizon, much needs to be 
done before there is full respect for IPR in the Democratic Republic 
of the Congo (DRC).  End Summary. 
 
Brief Background of the Congolese Music Industry 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶2.  (U) Music plays an integral role in Congolese culture, dating 
back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Since the colonial 
era, Kinshasa has acted as a center of musical innovation, hosting 
many of the great modern African musical movements.  "Congo music," 
for example, a movement popular in the 1940's, is considered as 
revolutionary for African music as jazz was for American music. 
Moreover, the rumba, a Congolese music and dance movement that 
emerged during the late 1960s, has become popular worldwide.  Most 
importantly, Congolese music has had considerable influence not only 
throughout Africa, but also throughout the Americas and Europe. 
 
History of Music Piracy in the DRC 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (U) until the 1980's, the DRC had a flourishing recording 
industry.  By the mid-90's, however, it had all but vanished.  The 
disappearance of this long-established industry can be attributed to 
the advent of inexpensive recording technology and its widespread 
use to pirate local music, beginning with the introduction of 
cassettes in the early 1960's.  Unlike vinyl record technology, 
cassette technology was much simpler.  Music could be easily 
replicated in mass quantities as long as cheap blank tapes were 
available.  By 1976, the word "pirate," referring to copyright 
offenders, had already entered the vocabulary of Congolese musicians 
and producers.  Financial losses due to piracy took an increasing 
toll on musicians and producers and, by the mid-90's, most Congolese 
recording studios had gone out of business. 
 
¶4.  (U) The current dominance of pirated products in the DRC's music 
economy makes it almost impossible for a musician to earn a living 
by selling CD's through legitimate channels.  Kinshasa, once a 
former Mecca for musical innovation and production, is now one of 
the easiest places in the world to pirate music without fear of 
reprisal.  Despite this, artists and producers have found 
alternative ways to make money from their music, and Congolese music 
continues to be among the most popular, if not the most popular, in 
the continent. 
 
How Piracy Works in the DRC 
--------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (U) There are essentially two different levels of piracy in the 
DRC:  mass pirating operations, and small-scale distributing. 
Mass-pirating operations can occur on a variety of scales.  On the 
international level, highly sophisticated pirated music and goods 
are imported into the DRC from China and other parts of Asia, 
arriving here through various routes from Kenya, Tanzania and 
Nigeria.   In similar fashion, Congolese CD's and tapes are 
exported, particularly to Nigeria, where technology and factories 
exist to reproduce these recordings in mass quantities. After mass 
reproduction, they are either exported to the DRC to be sold, or are 
sent out of Africa to global black markets. 
 
¶6.  (U) Domestic small-scale distribution is what poses the biggest 
problem for Congolese law enforcement because it is so rampant and 
very difficult to track.  The most common small-scale distribution 
scheme involves a master tape or CD that is sold informally to an 
outside producer who in turn reproduces the tape and passes it on to 
retailers and distributors.  Pirated cassettes or CD's produced by 
small-scale distributors are often poor copies of the original, and 
are sometimes labeled with a piece of masking tape and a marking 
pen. 
 
¶7.  (U) Some musicians and producers even participate in the piracy 
of their own music.  Accepting the fact that piracy is unavoidable, 
artists often use pirating as a way of generating publicity for 
themselves, which can pay off in increased live concert ticket or 
merchandise sales, or even to help launch lucrative careers. 
 
¶8.  (U) Due to widespread poverty in the DRC, most Congolese 
actually prefer to buy pirated goods, simply because they are much 
cheaper than the originals and are of inferior but acceptable 
quality.  CD's or tapes being sold legally for USD 20.00 are often 
sold for USD 1.00 - 2.00 on the informal market. 
 
How Musicians Have Dealt with Piracy 
------------------------------------ 
 
 
¶9.  (U) With the absence of an established recording industry, live 
performances are what drive the Congolese music economy, since they 
are generally the primary means of income generation for artists. 
The amount a musical performance might earn for a concert is 
generally negotiated beforehand between promoters, venue owners and 
musicians.  These range from USD 15,000 for internationally-renowned 
artists to perform in stadiums, to USD 500 for popular Congolese 
bands to perform in small venues and night-clubs, to anywhere from 
USD 200 and to USD 50 for emerging artists to perform at private 
functions.  Many hotels, motels and restaurants have resident bands 
that perform on a regular basis.  These arrangements are often based 
on verbal agreements and, on average, the house band's earnings, 
although more regular, tend to be below earnings generated by 
one-off concerts or performances.  (Note:  Even live-broadcasting 
events and performances are recorded illegally by pirates and are 
then distributed via informal operators.  Sometimes even the 
promoters do this as a secondary source of income. End note.) 
 
¶10.  (U) Despite the predominance of the live performance industry, 
Congolese musicians continue to make records in the studio, partly 
to legitimize themselves as artists, but also because of a 
phenomenon called "libanga."  Libanga, which literally means "stone" 
or "throwing a stone" in Lingala, the major local language in the 
Kinshasa area, is slang for "tossing money to someone."  It is a 
form of social advertising, sponsorship and patronage that enables 
artists to make money from their records despite rampant piracy. 
Simply put, libanga is when a politician or rich businessman pays an 
artist to include the patron's name in a song.  This practice dates 
to the 1980's and 90's, but now dominates the content of Congolese 
pop music, to the point where entire verses of songs are merely a 
list of people's names. 
 
¶11.  (U) The ability to pay for an artist to sing your name in a 
song is a huge status symbol in Congolese culture, and is something 
to which many young people aspire.  Moreover, from a political 
standpoint, it is a way of getting a popular cultural figure to sing 
your praises. Understandably, these patrons do not object to the 
piracy of the music that they sponsor, knowing that it will be 
widely distributed and ultimately generate more publicity for 
themselves.  Strangely, however, the musicians themselves seem 
unconcerned about the piracy, perhaps realizing that the patrons pay 
for libanga only because of this informal distribution network and 
any airplay a song gets.  (Note:  In addition to patrons' names, 
Congolese musicians are not above mentioning famous club deejays in 
their songs.  End note.) 
 
Congolese Law and IPR 
--------------------- 
 
¶12.  (U) In theory, intellectual property rights (IPR) are protected 
by the law in the DRC.  But because of poorly-functioning 
administrative and judicial systems, this protection does not 
usually exist in practice.  The country has signed many 
international IPR agreements with organizations such as the World 
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Paris Convention 
for Protection of Intellectual Properties, which protects trademarks 
and patents.  The DRC is also a member of the Berne Convention, 
which protects copyright, artistic works, and literary rights.  The 
maximum protection that these conventions provide is 20 years for 
patents and 20 years, renewable, for trademarks, beginning from the 
date of registration. 
 
¶13.  (U) A 1986 law guarantees the protection of intellectual 
property rights.  The law when enforced, however, prescribes only 
light penalties, the maximum penalty being the destruction of the 
pirated products seized and the machines used to make them, and a 
fine.  Furthermore, the law does not give the court the power to 
seek out known pirates, but instead only the authority to prosecute 
them when a complaint is filed against them. This passive approach 
to combating piracy has enabled many serious offenders not only to 
escape justice, but also to continue to produce pirated copies in 
mass quantities. 
 
GDRC Policy and Initiatives 
--------------------------- 
 
¶14.  (U) SONECA (Societe Nationale des Editeurs, Compositeurs et 
Auteurs, in French, or National Society of Publishers, Composers and 
Authors, in English), the DRC's version of ASCAP, is the government 
agency responsible for ensuring the protection of artists' 
intellectual property rights, although it acts mainly as an 
administrative body.  Since 2005, this agency has begun an 
anti-piracy campaign to inform consumers about whether the products 
they buy are pirated or not.  Many genuine products, including CD's 
and tapes, are branded with a hologram to guarantee the product's 
bona fides to consumers.  (Note:  This policy has proved to be 
fairly ineffective against piracy, as most consumers do not seem to 
care whether what they buy is pirated or not.  End note.) 
 
¶15.  (U) The GDRC recently participated in a regional training 
workshop in Pretoria organized by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office 
 
(USPTO) in partnership with the South African Development Community 
(SADC) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). 
Three Congolese officials attended, representing the Office of 
Customs and Excise Tax, the Attorney General's office, and the 
Congolese National Police.  Efforts have already begun by these 
three Congolese entities to cooperate on IPR issues, and the seminar 
was seen as an informative and productive experience.  (Note:  A 
similar conference/training seminar will be sponsored by WIPO in 
Kinshasa in the near future.  End note.) 
 
¶16.  (U) The Minister of Justice has submitted a draft law to the 
government that seeks to rectify the flaws of the 1986 law.  The 
proposed law would make it possible to pursue suspected pirates, 
rather than having to wait for complaints to be filed before acting. 
 Moreover, the law calls for the dismantlement of SONECA, which has 
had a history of mis-management, and calls for the formation of a 
new commission called the "Collective Society."  This entity would 
address intellectual property rights issues more directly, and will 
be specifically charged with meeting the needs of musicians.  The 
law will be presented to parliament when the parliament reconvenes 
this fall. 
 
¶17.  (U) Comment:  Although the GDRC seems to be taking positive 
strides toward fighting intellectual property rights infringements, 
piracy has dominated the music industry for 20 years and thus deeply 
ingrained into the music sector's culture.  Like many other sectors 
of the GDRC economy, the Congolese music industry has found ways to 
cope, and even prosper, despite relative chaos.  Thus, in order to 
truly address the lack of respect for IPR much more needs to be done 
across the board in order to protect not only Congolese interests 
but also the interests of all those who require IPR protection in 
the DRC, including foreign producers.  End comment.