Copyright Laws and the Visual Arts Industry

Abstract

f the country. In particular, the study assesses the existing legal frameworks for copyright enforcement in Zimbabwe and explores the challenges and opportunities in the protection of copyright accruing to sculpture works. The study also seeks to establish a relationship between copyright enforcement and the visual arts industry of Zimbabwe and to recommend measures that can be implemented to alleviate copyright infringement in the visual arts industry of Zimbabwe. The research adopts a qualitative approach. The population sample for the research is made up of 20 artists who are stone sculptors and are located in Harare, Zimbabwe as this is the area in which the researcher is currently residing. The researcher conducted interviews on the participants through the use of interview guides. The interview guides assisted the researcher to ask questions which addressed the study objectives. The data analysis and organization process entailed the gathering of the data, cleaning data, categorizing the data according to the research instruments used, and its preparation for analysis. The study finds that there is a lack of awareness among both the visual artists and legal practitioners about intellectual property (IP) as they relate to visual artists. Also, the study finds that a new practice of the use of digital platforms for the exploitation of visual arts is emerging. As such, it has become more important for the visual art industry to protect their copyright closely. Overall, the study concludes that strong regulation of copyright would be of profound importance to visual artists and the overall well-being of the Zimbabwean people. In this connection, there is the need for the Zimbabwean government to have a specialized body of intellectual property practitioners that exclusively deal with copyright infringement issues. There is also the need for nationwide training and awareness campaigns concerning copyright laws on sculpture. This can help both lawyers and visual artists to understand the complex copyright law issues around stone sculpture and visual art generally in Zimbabwe. In addition, the study recommends that all law schools in the country should provide compulsory IP courses. There is also a great need to create extensive awareness in the judiciary and also provide training and capacity building of the judiciary to fully comprehend all relevant laws relating to IP of the visual arts.