There are many benefits you get as a member organisation or registrant of the Agency. Some of them include intellectual rights protection, contribution to policy governing the creative arts industry, access to the Creative Arts Industry Fund, and membership in many of the programmes we will be executing as per our mandate.
The creative industry must be regulated in order to provide structure and ensure that the many rights of creatives within the job market or industry are not trampled upon. The Agency is mandated by the government to, among many other things, oversee the growth and development of the industry in a way that no other body can.
Think of the Agency as an organisation charged with making sure that best practice is followed within the various domains of the creative industry, without inhibiting creative freedom. That’s us. What does this mean? Well, for starters it means that there will be better watch over your intellectual property rights. It also means that there’s going to be funding made available that goes into research and development of trends that will benefit all creatives, from photographers to writers to filmmakers.
No it does not. While new enterprises will be required to sign on as soon as they are registered, all creative enterprises that have existed prior to the coming into force of this Act and the operation of the Agency will be given a full year to register with the Agency.