The PPP and Intellectual Property

Mar 29, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
I am glad to see Stabroek News has covered the PPP’s blatant theft of Francis Bailey’s video footage in a recent advertisment. Three years ago, as is his typical of inimitable and brash illogic, Dr. Roger Luncheon excused the Ministry of Education’s piracy of textbooks with this statement:
“You could be a publisher with a copyright and you could offer to sell me the book for $1. My friend is a good photocopy artist and he could sell me the book for 10 cents. All of you are going to bid but who do you think is going to get it”
As a writer, this was something I found myself virtually alone addressing at the time, with the political parties responding but senior people in the arts remaining completely silent.
Today, with elections imminent, the PPP’s basic and crude philosophy of complete disregard for intellectual property rights is now on full display. It started with Ramotar’s first campaign speech in which he blatantly plagiarized a 2012 speech by Barack Obama. These are Obama’s words:
“Over the next four months, you have a choice to make, not just between two political parties or even two people – it’s a choice between two very different plans for our country.”
This is Donald Ramotar’s appropriation of those words, without any attribution:
“Over the next four months, you have to make choices, not just between three individuals or parties – these choices will determine the future of our country.”
Even his wardrobe and the décor were imitations of the Obama ad. It did not however stop there. As was featured in Stabroek News recently, a young man, Delon Moffett, started a social media campaign with the hashtags #moveforward and #movingforward. After various attacks on the campaign, suddenly the PPP suddenly started using the hashtag #movingforwardtogether. A similar experience happened with the Guyana National Youth Council and their Vote Like A Boss campaign, with the PPP appropriating the term and adding, “Vote PPP/C”.
It was also recently discovered that two weeks after the Cummingsburg Accord was launched, 11 Internet domain names containing various combinations of APNU and AFC were registered by Alexei Ramotar, the President’s son and the man behind the fibre optic cable disaster. This is called cyber-squatting and is not only unethical but illegal in many jurisdictions.
The APNU+AFC coalition came up with its campaign slogan, ‘It is time’”, and a week after the PPP launched their campaign song, sung by Trinidadian artists, “It is time”.
And now there is the Francis Bailey incident. What this shows is not ad hoc or random instances of complete disrespect for intellectual property, but a deliberate campaign of intellectual property theft with impunity. However, what is surprising to me is not that it has happened, but that people are shocked by it. Stakeholders – artists, writers, musicians and other creative people – not only should have expected this environment but are also equally culpable because no one speaks up on such a basic issue.
On a perhaps tangentially related matter, the Minister of Culture, Dr. Frank Anthony, is about to leave office and to date, we have not seen any corroborating evidence of him having delivered the over 30,000 copies of books that he has claimed to have printed under the Caribbean Press, with the majority being distributed to schools. This is the number of books for which he has received parliamentary funding approval. When pressed to corroborate that her Ministry has received anywhere near that number of books, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand fails to respond. This is basic accounting and accountability, and now you have not one but two ministers who seem to have tacitly collaborated to blinker the public – if these books have been produced and are in schools in the numbers they are supposed to be, it should be the simplest thing to confirm delivery and receipt, and the exact numbers. I close by repeating my call for a thorough audit of the Caribbean Press’ operations and indeed every area of cultural expenditure over the past eight years.
Ruel Johnson
Janus Cultural Policy Initiative

Latest News

The PPP and Intellectual Property

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Welcome and Sattaur hat-tricks power West Ruimvelt’s emphatic win

Mominul, Jaker help Bangladesh avoid follow on

Rutherford’s stunning century in vain as...

Bentick’s hat-trick lifts YMCA to $1M and...

Final batch of tickets for opening match released

NSC to host National Awards Ceremony on Thursday

Features/Columnists

The business class also funds undemocratic parties

Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all

Too many sharks too close for comfort

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

The PPP and Intellectual Property

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]