DURING October last, in his parliamentary address, President David Granger mentioned that the copyright and protection of intellectual property laws would be modernised and updated. Foremost in the President’s mind was the concern of protecting the works of Guyanese writers, painters, sculptors, musicians and other intellectual property from being plagiarised or otherwise used commercially, without the Guyanese authors or producers deriving any benefit from their works .

The lack of full protection for intellectual property has been one of the inhibitions to Guyanese artistes and other producers of intellectual work producing such work in Guyana; if they re-locate to the metropolitan countries, they could enjoy the necessary protection. In the metropolitan countries, competition in intellectual products is far sharper than in Guyana and the Caribbean; and the product of Guyanese artistes and even researchers in such fields as medicine and technology may earn very little. However, when such work returns to Guyana, it would be recognised and some financial returns may accrue to the producers; such returns would only be assured if Guyana’s copyright laws are revised and updated.

The Guyana Trade Mark and the Patents and Design Acts date from 1973, while the Copyright Act came even earlier in 1956. The Copyright Act of 1956, in essence, copied the then current British legislation. The fines for infringing those laws were contemptuously small and did not give any protection to local artistes; on this basis alone, the laws needed to be updated. Further, since those laws were promulgated, the world has experienced its IT revolution with its computers, TV and various types of smart phones. The IT revolution has presented completely new challenges which are outside the scope of the old copyright and intellectual property protection legislation.

In the Caribbean, the first and most celebrated case of intellectual property rights was the “Rum and Coca-Cola” case: In the 1940s, a Trinidadian calypsonian composed and sang a calypso praising rum and Coca-Cola as a drink. The song became very popular and the Coca-Cola company, one of the biggest multi-nationals in the world, adopted the song for its advertising and marketing without in any way compensating the author. The author did not have enough funds to mount any opposition against Coca-Cola in the courts. Fortunately, some Trinidadian businessmen assisted the calypsonian financially and he was able to challenge Coca-Cola; consequently, the author was compensated. The song was so important to Coca-Cola’s marketing at the time that they engaged the Andrews Sisters and Bing Crosby to sing it. The Rum and Coca-Cola case educated Caribbean people in the concept and meaning of intellectual property and how valuable it could be.

In Guyana, because of the IT Revolution, there grew up DVD and CD industries whereby copies would be made of foreign films and music recordings and these would be sold much cheaper than the originals. Such vending went on in pushcarts, on side-walks and even in the more established shops. School books, lengthy extracts from text books and other copyrighted educational materials were photocopied and sold at a fraction of the price of the originals. The owners of the copyrights for these materials are mostly in North America and the United Kingdom and they find it very costly and unprofitable to institute legal proceedings in Guyana. The television stations also air pirated films and other copyrighted programme material and would be easier open to prosecution, since they are readily identified. These aforementioned groups have some fear that the modernised legislation would negatively affect them. This may, however, need not be so since the law may be favourably interpreted.

There could be a positive social spin-off if there are less of these pirated films and music, since many of them are of very low quality; many of the films being indecent “blue” films. Some of the noise pollution in Georgetown would be reduced if there are less of the ubiquitous music carts.

The modernising of the Copyright and Intellectual Property laws is a step in the right direction. It would be bringing Guyana into the 21st century and would be another aspect in which Guyana would be catching up with the most developed countries. It would afford protection to artistes and other creators of intellectual products, allow them to earn incomes from their work and encourage them to remain in Guyana. It would also protect the public from the vulgarity of “blue” films and other low-quality films and music. We consider the modernised legislation necessary and support government’s efforts to achieve it.