Musician Calls IP Laws ‘Lion With no Teeth’
30 November 2012
Musicians in Fiji say the lack of enforcement on copyright laws are costing local performers money.
Speaking at the opening of Naursori’s Procera Music Festival, local musician Seru Serevi said the music festival is designed in part to raise awareness of copyright issues. “This festival is just another stage to let the people know the fights we’ve been fighting over the years, it’s been a real struggle,” he said.
Serevi said evidence piracy was is easy to find in shops and on street corners and that local artists are unsure why the government is not taking bolder steps to address the problem.
“We hope avenues like this will help us, we’ll take the stage and tell the law enforcers about our fight,” he said.
Procera Music studio managing director Mohammed Akief said the government’s efforts to address copyright infringement is evident through last year’s establishment of the Fiji Intellectual Property Office (FIPO).
“We have a lot of confidence in this government and we see they have brought the FIPO unit to help stop piracy and we believe results will definitely come by the end of this year,” Akief said.
Serevi said local artists are grateful the government has made changes to existing IP legislation, but that enforcement efforts remain weak.
“We are thankful that they had changed section 121 of the copyright act but it’s like a lion with no teeth, they need to enforce the law otherwise it’s just a piece of paper,” he said.
