Basseterre, St. Kitts-Calypsonians and Soca Artistes in St. Kitts and Nevis were recently educated on intellectual property etiquette in an effort to encourage these individuals to pursue original content.
In an interview with National Carnival Chairman Noah Mills gave an overview of the seminar.
“We have completed the intellectual property violation program to phase 2 where we had seminars,” he said. ‘Three professionals in that region came in and presented first to soca artiste and bands and then a different seminar to calypsonians.”
The Carnival Chairman highlighted what the seminar sought to achieve.
“We wanted to educate all of the artists,” he said. “We are now in an age where intellectual property law suits are becoming rather prevalent so we wanted the artist to have a better understanding that their song, music and melody are indeed assets and should not be used by others without their explicit permission. On the flip side of that they too should not be sampling the music, lyrics and melody from other artists be it regionally or internationally because they opened themselves up to lawsuits.”
In preparation for Sugar Mas 45 the National Carnival Committee pursued to introduce a new ruled dub Article 6 that was aimed at vetting Carnival releases for copyright material. Mills indicated that the soca artists welcomed the move but it was shot down by the Calypsonians.
Article 6 was adopted by the Soca artists and the bands where they have sent in their lyrics and music and an independent panel of five individuals will sit down and listen to the music and review the lyrics to see, if, to the best of their knowledge they are not infringing on any international property rights on any artist. The calypsonians decided not to adopt this Article 6.
He added that later on during carnival the bands will face the same scrutiny.
Mills said the review for lyrics and music for soca artists will take place this SaturdayNov. 5.
The Calypsonians were said to have unanimously voted against article 6 fearing it could be used as a form of censorship.
source: Loshaun Dixon for thestkittsnevisobserver.com
