With Guyanese seemingly lacking consciousness of copyright, a group of young artists is hoping to raise awareness of the importance of this and has begun its campaign by putting advertisements in the newspapers.
Under the moniker ‘The League of Creative Artistes’, the group in its advertisement states “Guyana passed anti-piracy legislation to protect the livelihood of fishermen, but there is no similar legislation to protect the livelihood of writers, singers, artists, designers and other creative citizens…” .
Spokesperson for the group Barrington Braithwaite told Stabroek News that seminars and meetings have been held, letters have been written but “it’s not working”. He said the group, consisting of mostly young persons, pooled their money and asked him to place the advertisement in the newspaper. The group includes jewellery designers, visual artists, writers, musicians and others who want their work to be protected.
Braithwaite, a writer, said that they want to also make it a matter of record, hence the placing of the advertisement. He stated that the group wants to raise awareness of the issue and the importance of it. To illustrate his point, he pointed out that if an artist creates something and someone else takes it and uses it and is taken to court here, the fine for a breach of copyright is $68, which he described as “nominal”. He compared this to Barbados, where he said, if someone wins a copyright case there, the fine is US$125,000.
“The whole thing of it is protection of rights,” Braithwaite declared. He also pointed to the local practice of photocopying books, relating that he had experienced this himself at a popular store. Many books are being copied and there is no “consciousness of intellectual rights existing in this country”, he stated. No one questions it, he added. “They just doing it because they have been doing it all the time.”
He said it was frightening that there seems to be no consciousness on the part of the wider public about the rights of other people and this is a big problem. The writer noted that it has been said that people are poor, but, drawing a parallel between a chain snatcher and those who copy, he questioned whether poverty really is a reason for stealing.
According to Braithwaite, the group hopes to get some sort of response or generate a discussion. They plan to “broaden the issue”; he stated adding that they want it to be dealt with as a Caribbean Community (Caricom) issue. Acknowledging that piracy cannot be stamped out, he stated that they want fines and charges to be significantly increased and this means the legislation has to be reviewed and given some teeth. This has been a constant cry from numerous persons in the past.
With no modern copyright laws in place, Guyana’s laws on intellectual property rights is substantially the 1956 Copyright Act of the United Kingdom insofar as it forms part of the Laws of Guyana. The UK has since updated its Copyright Act and several Caricom states such as Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia and Belize have enacted copyright legislation. Guyana is a signatory to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and is also a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Copyright infringement is rampant in Guyana and over the years, various artistes and other persons have raised concerns about the lack of such legislation and its effects on their livelihood. Many have left these shores stating that they could not make a living here because of the dearth of such laws
Copyright law, basically seeks to protect the owners of intellectual property of all kinds so that they can benefit from their creations. This includes literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works, sound recordings, films, broadcasts and cable programmes. The law provides that no one may reproduce these without the permission of the owner of the copyright who is often the author but may be the publisher, broadcaster or other person. In most cases, those persons will require a payment of a fee as a price for giving their consent. These fees vary in different circumstances. Up to last year, there were consultations ongoing on a draft copyright bill.
