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Approving theft of intellectual property is the summit of bold-faced lawlessness

Sep 16, 2012 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

The recent pronouncements by chief spokesperson for the PPP/C government that it was a Cabinet decision to procure pirated text books and then to approve theft of intellectual property by saying it is value for money is the summit of bold-faced lawlessness. To be informed that the Cabinet of President Donald Ramotar would sit and agree that it is quite okay for copyright laws to be broken and for persons’ intellectual property to be stolen must serve as a wake-up call for all Guyana. Not only have they said it is okay for this to happen, but they are encouraging such criminal behaviour by paying the criminals to who steal the intellectual property of others.
We are speaking of the decision of the President and his Cabinet to procure textbooks from a company with no rights to reproduce these books.
What the Donald Ramotar Cabinet has said to this nation and more so to young people is that it is appropriate, even acceptable, to steal if you are poor. What sort of example is this for our students?
Should we not be teaching our students to respect the property of others and that stealing someone’s property is wrong?
How can our teachers discipline a child who steals from another when the very government condones theft?
We need to realize that work created by an author, musician or poet is as valuable as work created by persons engaged in other forms of work. In as much as a rice farmer would plough his field, sow the paddy, keep away bugs and insects and put his energy, time and financial resources into bringing forth a good harvest, so too does an author, musician or poet.
In as much as that rice farmer depends on his harvest to feed his family and take care of his needs, so too does the author, musician and poet. The author relies on copies of his book being sold to get money to feed his family and take care of his needs.
When the government says it is acceptable to make copies of the author’s book without the approval of the author, they are in effect ‘taking bread out of his mouth’.
Not only has the PPP/C sent the wrong message to our children, but its action will bring this country into disrepute and will heap disgrace on all Guyanese as many of the titles that the government has approved to be photocopied are from international publishing houses that hold the exclusive rights to the printing of these books.
How will Guyanese citizens be able to hold their heads high when the international community looks on us as thieves of intellectual property?
Members of the PPP/C government have beaten their chests and howled louder than any wind to deny corruption, but here again we witness another act which can carry no other label than ‘theft and corruption’. Photocopying books is not only illegal, but it is immoral and unethical.
Let it be made clear that the Alliance For Change did not cut or reduce the budget for education, so there is no excuse for the government not to have allocated money for the purchase of legitimate textbooks for the public schools.
The government had every intention to pay for ‘pirated’ books. As we learnt from the Cabinet spokesperson, this has been the practice for more than nineteen years.
This is totally unacceptable and must not be allowed to continue. Instead of paying super salaries and funding hare-brained and whimsical projects, the PPP/C government should use its slush funds to purchase textbooks from publishing houses and not put Guyanese to shame.
For the government to claim that poverty caused it to approve theft is to offend the many poor people of this country who, though poor, live an honest and respectable life.
There are many people in this country who are poor but they have dignity more than the entire PPP/C government.

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