By Jared Liddell

ARTISTES in Guyana have long been calling for the creation and implementation of copyright laws to protect their ownership and usage rights of their creative works, including works of art, books, and musical compositions.

World-renowned musician, Eddie Grant, had reportedly said that he would refrain from performing in Guyana, until there are copyright laws implemented within the country, to protect, not just his content, but the content of all other local artistes.

Trinidadian soca artiste, Farmer Nappy, it was reported, stated that there was a great need for Guyana to have copyright laws, so as to ensure that local artistes were not robbed of their opportunities. He said “there are some artistes in Guyana who never had the opportunity to go where they’re supposed to go, one Guyanese musician could buss from Guyana and put Guyana on top of the world.”

The Guyana Chronicle reached out to local singer/ song writer, Calvin Burnette, who expressed that he believed there was a definite need for these laws to be formulated and implemented, stating that, as an artiste, whether musical, visual or performing, sacrifices of both time and money are made to produce original content.

“We spend a whole lot of time and money to produce. Our musicians might be aware that we would spend a whole lot of time in the studio to get your song produced, to get instrumentals done and all of that because we cannot use instrumentals that are already out there because of copyright rules. So, in order for us to produce music we have to have our own stuff as in original material; to have our original material means that we are going to have to pay a producer to compose the instrumental and so on and after all of that is done there are no laws whatsoever to protect us.”

He explained that in most instances the artiste spends large sums of money to produce his/her music and later notices it being sold through varying avenues inclusive of pushcarts for as low as a $100. He explained that the artiste does not benefit from any revenue coming out of those sales. He stated that if laws were in place to protect the artiste then that content would have been under copyright rules, and the illegal sales would have been stopped and the artiste would have been able to generate some funds.
He further stated the importance of having copyright laws finally implemented in Guyana saying, “We as a body, this is what we want, for too long we have been exposed, for too long we have been short-changed, for too long we have been just drawing the shorter end of the stick while still producing. We need these laws to protect us because at the end of the day this is our 9-5; this is how we take care of our family and ourselves; so we need law to protect us.”

Further Burnette related seeing recently-deceased Guyanese legend, Johnny Braff, who was well known for the hit song “It Burns Inside”, Burnette stated that he had an interaction with Braff and following that interaction he lamented on the fact that Braff had been one of the best artistes of his time in not only Guyana but also internationally, and explained that although Braff had this status, the fact that there were no copyright laws to protect his content did not enable him to benefit from any level of royalties.

He explained that Braff, like many other local artistes, did not benefit significantly for the monetary sacrifices he made to produce content and that was one of the major reasons artistes are calling for legislation to be drafted.