If there are tricky waters to navigate as a creative it is the legal side of our art. Most artists truly struggle with understanding the laws that affect the creative industry and so many of them unfortu
nately can easily be exploited. I recently met with 25 year old Malachi, a poet, writer and songwriter who also happens to be a 4th year Law student. In 2014 he started sharing his artistry with the world and is well known around the poetry circles. He has just recently transitioned from performing to talent management and copyright management. "As artists we rarely have someone on our side that understands our processes in creating our work and how much of ourselves we reveal or give to do so. Legal jargons are pretty much Greek to us when we first enter the industry. I noticed that though there were a lot of managers available for creatives they do not always have the best interest of the artist at heart and fail to understand them. My goal is to safeguard the work that creatives produce, to understand how best I can help them in creating. As a creative myself I understand. I want to ensure that the art which my artists use is safeguarded and they can make a profit from it."
Copyright refers to the legal right of the owner of intellectual property. In simpler terms, copyright is the right to copy. I asked Malachi to explain what exactly is entailed by copyrighting. ‘When someone creates a product that is viewed as original and that requires a great amount of mental activity to create, this product becomes an intellectual property that must be protected from unauthorized duplication. We have seen cases where artists sample other musician's songs and beats without permission and get sued for millions. And these are the advantages of Copyrights. Your work is exclusively yours and anyone who wants to use it pays for it.”
We can all agree that whether one is a musician or not understanding the law both empowers and protects us.
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