by Linda Straker
- Culture Minister unaware about Intellectual Property Rights laws
- Grenada’s copyright law provides guidance for communicating and public display of copyright works
Culture Minister Norland Cox is unaware of the Intellectual Property Rights laws in Grenada which speak against the illegal streaming of events using the various forms of social media platforms.
“That in itself is quite a difficult task, I am not clear as to what sort of legislation we have that can treat or to be used to confiscate someone’s cell phone,” he responded when asked to share the strategy that will be adopted by the Spicemas Corporation (SMC) to combat illegal streaming of Carnival activities.
“I don’t know in terms of the magnitude of the problem or if it is a problem,” he said while expressing his belief that illegal streaming cannot influence a person’s decision to attend or not attend an event.
“If somebody taking five minutes of a show and streaming it how that has or if that has any influence on someone attending a show or not attend a show? I cannot see that as a big issue because knowing our people they like to experience things live,” he told reporters while answering questions in the weekly Tuesday morning post-cabinet briefing.
The minister also said that the SMC has put structures in place for some final shows to be available via a pay per view option, so there should be no reason for illegal streaming of events.
However, Grenada’s copyright law which came into effect on 26 April 2012 provides guidance for the communicating and public display of copyright works.
The legislation says that the owner of copyright shall among other things have the exclusive right to authorise, or prohibit: reproduction of the work; translation of the work; adaptation, arrangement, or other transformation of the work; public display of the original, or a copy of the work; public performance of the work, including cable programme services; broadcasts of the work, including cable television service broadcasts and communication to the public of the work.
Most recently the United States Trade Office in its Special 301 report for 2018 said that the United States continued to engage with members of the Caribbean Community and other governments in the region on concerns regarding inadequate and ineffective IP protection and enforcement, including ongoing broadcast television and satellite signal piracy and unlicenced and uncompensated use of copyrighted music.
