Over 5 000 pirated music CDs have been seized by the police, and an employee of a City-based company is assisting the force in its investigations...
News Source: Nation News
Officers of the recently formed Copyright Infringement Unit of the Royal Barbados Police Force carried out a midday raid Wednesday and netted 5 374 bootleg CDs ? all containing music of various foreign artistes.
Up to Press time they were questioning an employee of Hi-Tech in Tudor Street, Bridgetown.
Commissioner Darwin Dottin was pleased with this development, and told the WEEKEND NATION last night: ?We have had several meetings with stakeholders including the Concerned Music/Video Producers and Retailers of Barbados, and we pledged the spirit of co-operation. We are happy with the recent development.?
He also noted that since the CDs contained what seems to be illegally copied foreign music, the force would be liaising with the Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (COSCAP) as to the procedure related to pirated music that is not Barbadian.
A source said COSCAP, which has a number of reciprocal agreements with international societies, particularly the French-based world umbrella body, CISAC, was awaiting word yesterday evening from a foreign artiste?s legal representative in order to proceed.
Spokesman for the concerned producers and retailers, Peter Boyce, was also heartened by the development, as they had only met with the police last week.
?Since meeting with the police we have heard of their efforts in terms of CDs and particularly DVDs, which for some time have been pirated freely in Barbados,? said Boyce.
Another source said it was customary for large caches of pirated foreign music to be available at this time of year.
?Most of the pirates of local music have gone underground, but I trust the police will step up things even more during Crop-Over when most of the music will be local,? she added.
Recently, concerned producers and retailers declared they would not release new music until police step up anti-piracy law enforcement.
