Dear Editor,
It is amazing the way people use your rights without your permission in this country, and you can’t stop them even if you call the police or you go to court. Maybe if you were GBTI, Banks DIH, DDL, Gafoors, NBIC or Toolsie Persaud and you have the money to defend your company, it can work.
The copyright laws in Guyana were adhered to in the ’50s to the ’80s and then it became a free for all in Guyana.
Nobody cares any more; if you tell them to stop pirating CDs or DVDs they think that you are mad. The people now that pirate CDs and DVDs feel that this is a God-given right and that they can do this without thinking about the person(s) who have invested their hard-earned monies in a particular project. The shops and cartmen that sell all of these pirated goods know that no one can take them to court and get a conviction, because all over the country Tom, Dick and Harry are doing the same thing and are making millions of dollars from all of the musicians, actors and actresses’ hard sweat.
Well now, NCN Television which is protected by the Government of Guyana is now going to the World Cup in Brazil. For the last three weeks you have been hearing on the airwaves that NCN Television owns the rights to broadcast the 2014 World Cup football in Guyana.
If and only if, NCN Television decides to give written permission to any of our TV stations in Guyana the right also to broadcast the 2014 football World Cup only then we the people will be able to see it on another channel. NCN Television is now showing musicians, actors and actresses in this country called Guyana that they are the government station and you dare not touch this product because they have paid millions of dollars for the television rights to show it; and if any owners from the TV arena decide to show the 2014 football World Cup they are going to be in very serious trouble. Every one of the station owners knows that this means that their station(s) would be automatically closed down for a few months. So I don’t think that these TV stations are not going to adhere to the advert that is being aired. This is what the musicians, actors and actresses have been waiting for in Guyana.
The government must now flex its muscles against piracy, but it must not only be for NCN Television but for the creative people of this nation who don’t mind investing their money in a project but should also get protection from the Government of Guyana to get it back with a plus. Musicians, actors and actresses in Guyana are very timid simply because most of them have never been out of this country and they don’t know that musicians, actors and actresses in other countries make a serious living from their trade. The copyright laws are adhered to in most countries which are very progressive in the arts and culture field. Guyanese worry too much about people seeing them on stage. They should be worried about making a good living from what they do best and speaking out against what harms them from making a proper living.
Yours faithfully,
Rudy Grant
