PIRACY IN THE CARIBBEAN

To the wor ld, the Caribbean is seen as the ultimate re laxation zone. From the “Yeah mon, ever yt ing ire!” attitude of Jamaica, to Tr inidad and Tobago where the par ty ne ver ends. For the most par t, this perception is true. In Tr inidad and Tobago, we really do party.We really do relax. After all, we have the biggest Carnival in the wor ld. A two-day long event w ith an informal national holiday (Ash We dnesday) rig ht after.May be that’s why it may be easy for foreig ners and locals alike, to take advantage of the laws that protect the intellectual proper ty of our enter tainers

Piracy is as common in this region as the island sun, mainly because the average person doesn’t know or consider the serious impact it has on the music industry, and by extension, national events like Carnival that rely heavily on the local music.

Besides the activity that Captain Jack Sparrow engages in on a daily basis, Piracy as we all know refers to the unlawful reproduction and/or distribution of both live and recorded material protected by the copyright laws of the land. It may sound as though it’s an act that can only be achieved by planned operations set up to make a profit, but the truth is, individuals are quite capable of doing the damage themselves. It’s as simple as duplicating a CD, and with all the technological advances of the day, we know how easy that can be. Without taking into consideration the fact that their sixty something dollar ticket only entitled them to one night of music, a tourist may easily record a night at one of the many calypso tents “just for the travel journal.”

Or, as so many Carnival lovers do, one may compile a play list of one’s favourite

Soca tracks so one c an r eplay th e memories of the festival until new memories are made. As innocent as these thoughts are, they involve the reproduction of protected material… Bootlegging. An act just as illegal as the old practice of smuggling liquor in boots from which the term itself was derived.

The reality is the music circuit in Trinidad and Tobago is close to non-existent, which translates to fewer opportunities for moneymaking gigs. Carnival provides the most lucrative opportunity for Soca singers, who must go to super human extremes to capitalize on the season. They perform at as many as seven shows a day for the entire season. That’s a lot of long nights. Their album sales, which should really complement their annual income, suffer at the hands of Pirates who sell their music for much less than the originals, cutting the entertainer out of the equation. Thus begins the vicious cycle. The entertainer ’s focus is now shifted to making seasonal music that will get them into a calypso tent, or land them gigs in the big fetes, with hardly any vision for the international m arket. M any compositions are intended for the sole purpose of sending a crowd of partying Trinbagonians into a jumping, waving frenzy, or making the people raise dust on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. Many of these selections die after the season, mainly because they were not designed to have long shelf lives. It’s all in the name of making a quick buck to survive, or in this case, making back the quick buck stolen from them by Piracy

Maybe an idea of what an entertainer really stands to lose due to the pirating of his or her product may help to highlight how deadly piracy can be. According to one of the island’s most energetic and entertaining DJs/Soca Artiste Dawg-E Slaughter, “…the average cost of producing an album in Trinidad and Tobago is anywhere in the vicinity of $54,000.” This is inclusive of studio time and production costs such as mixing and mastering as well as packaging and other presentation costs. Then, on th e distribution end, there’s still a sales and marketing team or manager that would work for a percentage of the sales, not to mention an additional $5,000 for every reprint run which yields approximately 5000 to 7000 copies. At