Participants in the regional workshop on intellectual property held in Antigua on May 19 - 20, 2016. Photo: Provided

Representing the GRATE BVI Music Alliance was Paul 'Gadietz' Peart (foreground). Photo: Provided

Over the two days of the workshop participants had the opportunity to explore in detail the concepts of Intellectual Property Rights, Copyright, how to avoid Copyright infringement, Geographic indicators and patents. Photo: Provided

Eustace 'Boss' Freeman, President of the GRATE BVI Music Alliance. Photo: Facebook

The workshop took place from May 19 – 20, 2016 in Antigua and saw the participation of many countries in the region.

Representing the Virgin Islands at the workshop was Paul 'Gadietz' Peart, popular host of The Morning Ride show, heard on 103.7 FM and one of the key persons in the GRATE BVI Music Alliance.

Over the two days of the workshop participants had the opportunity to explore in detail the concepts of Intellectual Property Rights, Copyright, how to avoid Copyright infringement, Geographic indicators and Patents.

They also discussed the role of non-disclosure agreements and trade secrets, the value of a cultural sector to a country and the role which both Government and Private Sector can play in strengthening income generation in the creative sectors and the importance of viewing products from the cultural sector as tradeable commodities.

Another of the important issues discussed is the value to Small and Medium Enterprises of their endorsement of local artists through long term partnership deals.

Peart told this news site that his participation was important as the issues cover not just artists and entertainers but the hotel industry and other players in the hospitality sector to the radio stations which are operating without the right protocols in place to protect the artists' rights and intellectual property rights.

“The OECS is stressing that we put this in order as local artists are being ripped off and underpaid for their efforts,” he said.

Speaking with this news site, Eustace 'Boss' Freeman President of the Alliance said that it was important to attend such workshops as they are a means of gathering information.

“We are really behind as far as the music industry is concerned in the BVI so as much information that we could gather from people who might be a little ahead of us it could help us in shaping our music industry in the territory.”

He said it is important that music of local artists is protected the right way and that they receive the requisite compensation for their efforts.

A real uphill battle

Freeman said that it is a real uphill battle to get the recognition for the artists that they deserve here in the Virgin Islands.

“We are kind of behind in the industry for many reasons, ranging from the fact that a lot of artists still see themselves doing entertainment as a hobby rather than a business. So from that aspect we really don't go the full distance in ensuring our music is copyrighted and everything we supposed to get as far as compensation goes is in place.,

He said radio stations and DJs here in the VI are not equipped to manage a process where an artists can receive a royalty based on a a calculation on the number of times that music is played.

“Every radio station supposed to have a log list so that they could be able to send at the end of the day to wherever the copyrighted capital is, to be able to say we played this amount of songs for the day and we get the royalties for it. It is a real uphill battle because that structure itself has to be put in place,” said Freeman.