Copyright Bill hailed as milestone for creative future

The head of the national artistes rights agency on Wednesday welcomed sweeping reforms to national copyright law that will, for the first time, give creators and rights holders additional power to protect their work in a fast-changing digital age.

The new legislation updates the 1988 law to address digital content and streaming, strengthens penalties for infringement, and for the first time formally empowers the Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (COSCAP) to take direct legal action on behalf of members.

COSCAP Chief Executive Officer Dr Erica Smith hailed the Copyright Bill as a long‑awaited breakthrough that will finally give Barbadian creators the protection and respect they deserve.

Dr Smith told Barbados TODAY the proposed legislation, now before Parliament, represents years of lobbying and determination by the creative industry to secure a fair and enforceable legal framework.

“We have been lobbying for the past few years, and we actually formalised that lobby by writing the Law Reform Commission,” she said. “Fortunately, they were interested enough to take it up, and I must say there has been generally support for it.”

She stressed that the creative economy cannot grow without strong intellectual property protection.

“The fact is that we cannot be speaking of building our creative industries, encouraging innovation and so on, and not having the requisite legal framework, because creativity and innovation rely on the commercialisation of intellectual property rights,” Dr Smith explained. “Over the years we would pursue legal action for infringement, but it was very difficult because of how the legislation was written. That in turn has meant that we have had to be very restrained and very careful in the pursuit of the enforcement of our rights. So, in many ways, our hands were tied.”

Dr Smith emphasised that COSCAP’s intention was not to “sue people”, but to ensure that members’ rights could be protected and enforced fairly.

“What we are aiming to do is to ensure that the members’ rights are protected and that they can be enforced, and in so doing, encourage and incentivise creativity,” she said. “It should result in people having greater respect for the need not to infringe.”

She added that true respect for creative professionals goes beyond laws and enforcement.

“It is not just a question of having the correct legal framework. It’s a question of appreciating what creators add — the value they add — and the contribution they make to our economic development,” she said. “We are very much still in an environment where creative pursuits, especially in the cultural arts, are not seen as to be as good as other professions. But we need to understand the pillars for the future development of Barbados. We are not a highly industrialised society. We have a services‑based economy, and our biggest resource outside of land would be our people — and it is their creative output that we will have to rely increasingly on.”

Dr Smith also pointed to the rise of artificial intelligence as a reason for Barbados to act swiftly in modernising its laws.

“This is all against the background of the development of generative AI,” she said. “We will need to be much more agile in responding to a very rapidly changing environment — one in which we must have the relevant legal framework, because as much as people argue about the role AI will play or already plays, the reality is our economic system, the global economic system, is based on the ownership of assets and the control of the use of those assets. Either we’re going to position ourselves to be in the ownership seat, or we will just have to keep relying on others.”

Her comments followed Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kerrie Symmonds’ introduction of the bill in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, describing it as a “lifeline” for creators who have long struggled to defend their rights under an outdated 1998 Copyright Act.

“Under the 1998 legislation, no power was given to the licensing body to bring any action for infringement of a copyright in a work within its repertoire,” Symmonds said. “That has now changed. The licensing authority is now empowered to bring the action against infringement, so that for the first time the licensing authority has locus standi [legal standing] before the court. It has a relevant interest.”

Dr Smith’s remarks also echoed those of veteran cultural administrator and musician Dr Pierce Antonio Rudder, who last weekend called for a renewed culture of respect for intellectual property rights.

“We have no respect for the owners of copyright and we seem not to understand the true value and the need to protect the rights of authors and publishers,” Rudder said, as he received an honorary Doctor of Literature (D.Litt) degree from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus. “We have become a free‑use society.”

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb