By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

ACTIVIST and recording artist Terneille “TaDa” Burrows said the government’s passing of a compendium of Intellectual Property legislation, including a fully digital Intellectual Property Office, will be “beneficial” to Bahamian artists when it is operational.

She called for a “reasonable timeline” for the IP office to be in operation as legislation such as the Freedom of Information Act, initially passed under the Ingraham administration shortly before the 2012 general election, has yet to be fully enacted.

She said: “The establishment of the digital Intellectual Property Office sounds like it will be a beneficial resource for creators. I hope that a reasonable timeline is in place for it to be fully operational by. The Freedom of Information Act was passed many years ago, but we still await the enactment.”

The compendium of IP bills, which include the Patent Bill, Copyright Bill, Trademark Bill, Registrar of Records Bill and Registrar of Companies Bill, will offer more protection to the work produced by creatives and allow them to collect royalties when individuals use their intellectual property.

Ms Burrows said in 2011 she was a part of a group composed of recording professionals and music organisations that lobbied for the introduction of neighbouring rights legislation into copyright legislation.

She explained the neighbouring rights legislation would ensure artists, musicians, record producers and the owner of the recording would earn royalties whenever their recordings are broadcast or publicly performed and pointed out that neighbouring rights were not included in the compendium of bills.

She said: “Currently, only authors and composers of songs and music compositions can receive royalties in The Bahamas. Unfortunately, neighbouring rights legislation was not included in the compendium of bills that were passed.”

Ms Burrows also noted the majority of music and films are currently being produced digitally but the copyright legislation mentioned physical copies and phonorecords.

She said digital submissions should be accepted as a supported delivery format and metadata holding the details of the digital file should be required along with digital submissions.

She said: “Physical copies and phonorecords are referred to numerous times in the copyright legislation, but the vast majority of music, films and shows nowadays are published digitally. Digital submissions should be the supported delivery format. Metadata, which is a set of information about a file that can be stored within that file, should also be required along with file submissions.”

She said while she is “not aware” who the government consulted with prior to drafting the IP legislation, a group of relevant stakeholders, including artists, should have been “brought to the table”.

She said: “I am not aware of what consultation process happened ahead of the passage of the copyright bill, if any, but there should have been a cross-section of relevant stakeholders brought to the table to discuss the proposed legislation.”

In Parliament last week, Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper said the compendium of intellectual property related bills will be “transformative” for Bahamians especially those in the “orange economy”.

He said the bills will make it accessible for creatives to protect their work locally, avoiding them having to seek copyrights abroad and the establishment of the Intellectual Property Office will attract both local and international entities allowing the office to become a “self-sufficient revenue generator” instead of an expense to the government.