Music pirates are going to find it harder to get away with their ill gotten gains because of tough new laws being drafted.
Ministry of Legal Affairs permanent secretary Lester Efebo Wilkinson said Government was in the process of making amendments to the Copyright Laws,
Speaking at the official opening of the San Fernando offices of the Copyright Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago (COTT) on Coffee Street, this week, he said certain mechanisms, structures and business processes needed to be put in place to protect COTT's members.
The amendments will make it easier for the police to enforce the law and deal with music piracy and to enable Trinidad to accede to two international conventions known as the World Intellectual Property Organisation Internet Treaties.
COTT's chief executive officer Allison Demas noted that at the end of 2004, the organisation had 1,107 members, and royalties distributed to them totalled $4,110,157.58.
Wilkinson, however, said he recognised that piracy was a problem.
"The Ministry of Legal Affairs has been partnering with COTT to deal with the piracy issue all year round. The Ministry had a clear attack on piracy last year, and we had training programmes to help with enforcement of the law." he said.
As an example of how piracy had hit the music business, one businessman, Wahid Subratie, said he had to close his shop in San Fernando because of piracy.
"Seven out of ten customers are requesting pirate copies. We don't offer it, but a lot of other people do -that is the extent of the piracy."
Wilkinson, however, acknowledged it was near impossible to stop pirates-unless "we help develop the consciences of pirates by letting them know it is wrong to steal."
He added that pirates even downloaded music from the Internet and sold it. He said maybe there should be some consideration to partnering with those people who seemed to embrace lawlessness as it related to piracy, and allow them to download for a fee-ideas worth thinking about, he added.
Wilkinson said that they had to appeal to the conscience of pirates "to make them understand that they are the ones perpetrating crimes. We have to allow them to see that they are taking the bread out of the artistes' mouths."
