Title: Copyright and you (Part II)
Source: Guyana Chronicle
Date: 14th July 2012
(Lecture on Copyright, presented by Mr. Teni Housty on Tuesday April 24, 2012, at Moray House, marking World Book & Copyright Day 2012. The event, titled ‘A Colloquium on Copyright’, was coordinated by Mr Petamber Persaud. Mr Housty holds a Master of Laws Degree. His areas of expertise spans International Trade, Intellectual Property, Telecommunications, Electronic Commerce, Media Law, Legislative Drafting, Labour Law, and Human Rights and Environmental Law. He is also a lecturer at the University of Guyana in the areas of Human Rights Law and Intellectual Property Law.)
WHAT IS of utmost importance with copyright is the ‘who’: It is your right; it is your private right which you have to appreciate you possess. The scheme that is established allows for that right to be regulated and recognised.
What it does? It says that no one should reproduce, or adapt your work without your permission. That is the basic provision that one would find in any copyright law. It is a law to protect the unauthorised reproduction of a particular work.
In dealing with that, the question of responsibility is raised. Is it my responsibility? Or is it a shared responsibility, dealing with the notion of protection; dealing with the notion of recognition? It starts with you. But you should not be alone in dealing with rights, or dealing with what you have created. In that particular regard, we begin to look at how things are recognised.
There is a scheme in the US that allows for the registration of a copyright work. That framework for registration does not apply in Guyana; it is not part of our framework, hence the protection, which is you, the right holder. Having created the original work, you have to take these steps. That is the hard part; that becomes extremely hard, particularly because there is a lack of recognition of the value of that which is created.
So, the complexity of copyright deals with:
1) A recognition of a work in some material form;
2) a person whose work has been recognised; and
3) ways within which to protect that work.
But more importantly, having expended your labour and having created a work, yes, part of your motivation would be to share that knowledge. But at the end of the day, a lot of it will have to do with the money.
How do you do that? That becomes part of the challenge.
My observations in this regard sort of step out of the legal framework, because the law creates the environment within which you should work, and goes into some more practicalities; some more responsible or reasonable suggestions.
As creators of works, what is your strategy when you have your work? Do you have one? Develop a strategy. Who are the persons whom you want to deal with your works.
And as this event progresses, I see, with satisfaction, some of the more strategic and successful persons, in terms of marshalling resources, swelling our ranks. I say nothing further about one of the more successful music producers, and a publisher of a magazine that is reasonably successful in the country. I also recognise the presence of a successful Mashramani designer. When you look at these examples, there is actually a creative renaissance that is happening in Guyana, started, from my own exposure and experience, within the past six years. We see it more in the musical and entertainment genres, but the renaissance, overall, actually does exists.
Who are the persons that impact you and the things you do? Who are the persons that you have a greater impact on? What is the nature… And, yes, I’m asking the questions to provoke your thoughts. What is the nature of your relationships and interactions with those persons? If you ask for something, would they support you or not? Where do the new opportunities lie?
You look around in Guyana, and there should be opportunities with the opening of the radio spectrum and the television spectrum. And when you look at the shift, there is a bit of challenge, in which books in their original form will face. That’s a technology challenge.
Copyright today is not about what I describe as the field of dreams: If you build it, they will come. It is not about that. It is about recognising that you have created something of value, and finding ways to exploit the value of what you have.
Who are the targets of your particular market? How are you going to set yourself apart from your competitors in that particular market? The good thing about it all is that there are examples of those who have been able to do that. They may not tell you how they do it, but the examples are there to illustrate that success.
What power do you have if you stop writing, if you stop creating? What impact would that have? I wouldn’t say anything extreme, but we would create a nation of lesser enlightened persons. Think about the technology that is part of our daily lives. I left my phones over there. Oh yes! Two! But that’s another story. Information in electronic form is both a threat and an opportunity. Electronic books will be a reality in Guyana, soon; very soon. Is there a way in which the author of a print book could translate that in some form of value in that electronic framework? You have to be strategic in this day and age. A most important ally and part of what becomes important is: Who will help you; who will guide you? That would be the business community. Are they your partners? Are they your sponsors?
What opportunities lie for you to create that notion of change in those whom reside the power to create the change?
Right now a particular body [Parliament] should be in session or may not be debating what is actually a substantive copyright work – our National Budget is such a work. The total implication of that copyright work, not taking it from a purely political perspective but look at the power that single work can have and would you believe that that speech by the Honourable Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, is already online available for our own review; the details may not be online but this shows the opportunity this technology presents. But how do we change those fundamental stumbling blocks that exist in our reality today. How do we get others to recognise the value of our work.
I saw a few days ago, our moderator, Mr Persaud, was doing a review of some of his past shows on copyright on the National Communication Network (NCN). One of the presenters, a Guyanese artiste, John ‘Slingshot’ Drepaul, asked the question, wouldn’t you get vex if somebody goes into your house and steals from you. You should. It is the same thing you do when you reproduce another’s work without their permission.
What I suggest, therefore, that is important in Guyana, is a shift or a change in our overall approach to notion of copy(—-). Because there are opportunities out there if we decide to think outside the conventional box.
A colleague of mine who represents a Guyanese artiste in Barbados visited Guyana several years ago and we were talking about the plight of the artistes’ work being played on the internet and pirated onto other sources. That person said if it is good enough to play, there must be something good about it. From that, other opportunities are created. You have the power to create and make use of those opportunities.
A good son of the soil who has been writing in the papers in recent times is Dave Martins. Do you know that almost all the past Tradewinds songs are available on U-tube right now?
.…shifting the mind-set so as to exploit the opportunities that exist!
I therefore suggest 1) strategic thinking and action, 2) targeting positing in relevant markets, and 3) a mind-set to create change will actually fill in the blank and create copyright for you.