Barbados continues to place increasing official focus on the importance of sensitizing its creative community to the importance of closing licensing deals for the protection of their intellectual property.
The island’s Minister of Culture Stephen Lashley has been the latest government official to publicly pronounce on the importance of licensing deals being understood by artistes from an early age.
At a January 9 Workshop titled Caribbean Music – Sync or Swim in Bridgetown, Lashley spoke with musicians about the nexus between understanding copyright law and securing commercial success as performing artistes. “Musical creators need to understand the intricacies of intellectual property rights and the things that must be put in place to enjoy and to exploit those rights,” the Barbadian Culture Minister said citing music licensing as one of the safeguards used to protect an artist’s IP.
It is a lesson that dearly needs to be learnt in Guyana where the near complete absence of legal restraints on the cynical pirating of music has seen local musicians queuing up to release and market their music in North America where copyright laws are far more protective of performers’ rights.
Pointing to the frustrations that come with persons’ intellectual property being stolen, the Barbadian Culture Minister added that licensing acts as a “critical barrier” for protection against piracy. Lashley further suggested that there was need for regional colleges and universities, to “start focusing attention in a more specific way on critical aspects of intellectual property [protection], preparing graduates, [particularly] attorneys-at-law and persons involved in the business, with the skills to render proper and effective advice.”
Over the years, initiatives to move to the courts to forestall or correct copyright transgression in the text book industry have borne little fruit whilst the opportunity afforded by piracy to make text books available at significantly lower prices have meant that any public lobby for an end to copyright transgression has been virtually non-existent. In the music industry the wanton copying of CD’s and their sale at outlets ranging from established stores to street vendors has meant that local artistes appear to have all but given up on the possibility of ever getting a fair deal.
