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Legislation to address copyright infringement in Guyana remains priority for US
– Ambassadors required to report errant countries
By Abena Rockcliffe
The United States of America remains concerned about the absence of legislation in Guyana to prevent copyright infringement.
The US had urged Guyana before to establish stringent copyright legislation, but Guyana slipped behind in its deadlines to make this a reality.
At a recent press conference at the Duke Street, Kingston Embassy, US Ambassador, Perry Holloway, said that Ambassadors are legally required to inform congress about errant countries.
Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnarine
Holloway said that his government is keen on ensuring Guyana gets copyright legislation as well as “proper protection.”
“So yes, copyright infringement is certainly a serious concern for my government and it will continue to be a serious one. I think we actually have legislation that requires us to even inform our Congress of which countries are performing at a certain level and which are not. So it is an important issue, one that we will continue to work on under the democracy and governance I described as being one of the US top priorities.”
Local musicians have long lamented that an outdated copyright law is preventing them from earning a decent living.
The APNU+AFC coalition had announced that it would pass modern Intellectual Property legislation within a year.
During his contribution to the 2015 National Budget debate, Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine had said that the new government could not, “as has happened for a decade and a half under the previous administration, pay lip-service to intellectual property by neglecting it to the point of institutionalizing intellectual property piracy.”
He later said that there would be a wide-ranging consultation with musicians, authors, poets and others in the creative industry, to ensure that the new law takes into consideration their concerns.
Dr. Roopnaraine, who is also the Minister with overall responsibility for culture, youth and sport, also expressed hope that the law would be enacted in one year to replace the 1956 Copyright Act that Guyana inherited at the time of independence from Britain in 1966.
His announcement came less than one week after the Guyana Music Network (GMN) decided to mobilize its community to petition government for new legislation.
American Ambassador to Guyana, Perry Holloway
Addressing that meeting was world renowned Guyanese singer, Eddy Grant, who issued a passionate call for the radio stations being operated by the state-owned National Communications Network (NCN) to play more local music to enable the artistes to earn royalties and promote their craft.
The People’s Progressive Party Civic administration had claimed that copyright legislation would have prevented poor Guyanese from accessing otherwise expensive textbooks.
The award of a multi-million dollar contract by the Ministry of Education to a local producer and supplier of bootlegged textbooks was only halted after the United Kingdom Publishers Association secured a High Court injunction.
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