In a public consultation organized by the Parliament of Malawi in February 2025, EIFL and our partner, the Malawi Library and Information Consortium (MALICO), expressed support for two legislative bills aimed at creating a new national Copyright Office: Bill No. 1 of 2025 establishes a new Companies, Registrations and Intellectual Property Centre, and Bill No. 2 of 2025 amends the Copyright Act to accommodate the new Centre.    

In particular, EIFL and MALICO welcomed the designation of the new Centre as the Copyright Office, and the transfer of responsibility for the administration of Malawi’s Copyright Act from the Copyright Society of Malawi (COSOMA) to the new Copyright Office. Currently, COSOMA is responsible for both implementing the Copyright Act and administering a copyright collecting society (that collects fees on behalf of copyright owners). This dual functionality creates an inherent conflict of interest, especially when the agency that regulates the collecting society is the collecting society itself.

Bill No. 2 eliminates these conflicts, and additionally empowers the new Registrar of Copyright to provide oversight of copyright collecting societies. The new structure, which aligns with standard international practice, will clarify the role and responsibilities of each agency for libraries and other institutional users of the copyright system, as well as for the general public.

In addition, Bill No. 1 sets out the ministerial appointees to the newly-designated Copyright Office - these are representatives of the Copyright Society of Malawi, the Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce, a scientist, inventor or innovator, a Vice Chancellor of a public university, and a legal practitioner. EIFL and MALICO recommended that a representative of the National Librarian is also appointed. Libraries play a unique role in the copyright system, and serve as an effective proxy for the interests of the general public.

When the Copyright Office is established, EIFL and MALICO look forward to working with the new agency to address shortcomings in the Copyright Act (2016), especially around uses of digital materials for education and research.

Read the response to the public consultation by EIFL and MALICO.