‘Work In Our Interest’

Stakeholders of the Copyright Society of Liberia (COSOL) have celebrated the institution’s first anniversary with a retreat meant to discuss experience and draw lessons with a view to improve the workings of the organization. 

The retreat was commissioned by the stakeholders to assess the organization’s achievements, as well as amend policy documents and projects to benefit the economic well-being of IP rightsholders and ensure that COSOL’s second year of existence is more stakeholder-driven and participatory. 

Documents reviewed include COSOL mission and vision statements, objectives, work plan, and budget. The adopted documents, which were reviewed word-for-word by the stakeholders, are geared towards developing a values system that equates fame and popularity to wealth generation for IP rightsholders and the country at large.

“We would like to extend our gratitude to the leadership of COSOL for their traditionally high level of interaction, assistance, and support.” said the stakeholders. “The establishment of COSOL is a very successful experiment by the government to promote the economic interest of IP rightsholders.”

"And looking to the future, COSOL is expected to become a dynamic institution, with a strong policy framework and adequate regulations to govern the trade of copyrighted goods, attract investments, and response to IP crimes,” a press release from COSOL noted. 

However, they demanded the COSOL administration to explore new opportunities for the benefit of all stakeholders, such as the ongoing plans to begin the collection of royalties from the public (users of creative works), a market that has up to now remained largely untapped.  COSOL is also urged to strengthen the existing structure of the creative industries to become vibrant, responsive, and flexible enough to grow in an uncertain environment.

“This is what creators and rightsholders desire – their economic growth and protections, and this is what the creative industries business has always been about,” COSOL stakeholders noted. 

Over one hundred stakeholders drawn from across the spectrum of the creative or artistic industries attended the retreat, held on August 20^th, 2021, four days after COSOL’s first anniversary, which was on August 17. COSOL was established in 2019 by an administrative regulation signed between the Liberia Intellectual Property Office and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the government arm with oversight responsibility on Intellectual Property (IP) matters. It became operational on August 17, 2020, with a one-year goal of building a functional institution that protects the economic well-being of copyright-based industries.

Policies and regulations so far developed include membership and distribution rules; license tariffs; and the administrative regulation on sale, rental, reproduction, transmission, stamping, and distribution of copyright work.  Others include guidelines for implementation of the hologram security device; revised regulation for COSOL establishment; revised private copying levy regulation; business, operation, and risk management plans; membership drive framework document; and ICT policy.

At the retreat, the stakeholders called on COSOL to proactively proceed with the pending membership drive, expansion of the legal aid program, validation of the license tariff and kick off royalties collection soon after. Additional projects identified by the stakeholders include a survey on the economic contributions of creativity to the country's economy, training for policymakers, and actors of the law and justice sector, fast-tracking enforcement of copyright to minimize piracy, and crafting policy for the introduction of the proposed entertainment task.

This highly topical subject generated significant interest among participants and covered their advice to COSOL to safeguard the legitimate interests of IP rights holders and their economic well-being. Participants took advantage of open discussion periods to pose questions to presenters and share their concerns on these and other topics concerning Internet infringement, including the extent of the huge availability of free streaming platforms operating at loss to the IP rights holders.

They discuss the possibility of uniform policy tailored to their need in tackling the evolving threat of online infringements of copyrighted goods and the widespread abuse of piracy in broad daylight. In brief remarks, the Executive Director of COSOL, Prince Decker, appreciated the stakeholders for the retreat and promised further collaboration in implementing working documents adopted from the retreat.

“Now more than ever before, we are ready for the challenge ahead and won’t stop until the economic well-being of all stakeholders is guaranteed and protected. We will not stop until IP rightsholders are put in a position where they can become successful entrepreneurs and drive the copyright-based industries to become engines of economic growth for all Liberians to benefit,” Decker added.