Jamaica needs to protect its intellectual property rights to boost development, says Professor Doris Long of John Marshall Law School, Chicago.
Professor Long spoke to The Gleaner on Monday during a visit to Jamaica to meet with intellectual property officials, law enforcement officers and Phillip Paulwell, the Minister of Commerce, Science and Technology.
Intellectual property is the group of laws that protect ownership of what people invent or create. Copyright is the most well-known and provides legal protection for creators and owners of music recordings, films and books among others.
Without intellectual property protection, warned Professor Long, “Foreign investors will not come in and build that new plant if their product cannot be adequately protected from piracy.”
Other countries, she acknowledged, built their economies on piracy.
“Japan in the 1960s was a prime example. The economy was expert at adapting foreign technology for their market but 20 years later they realised they could export and institute full intellectual property protection.”
Even the United States, she admitted, despite instituting international property law in 1790, built up its publishing industry by pirating titles by famous authors such as Charles Dickens.
But piracy, she warned, can damage developing countries: “It is the knowledge-based economy that puts developed countries in front of developing countries. Without protecting intellectual property rights there is a disincentive for people to produce, be it music or a computer programme, when their earnings are cut by piracy.
“India suffered a brain drain because its top computer programmers moved abroad where their earnings could be protected.”
The United States, she added, was able to build up its software industry, thanks in part to programmers who sought intellectual property protection for their work. Countries such as India, China and Russia therefore suffered a brain drain that hampered their development.
In Jamaica, piracy has long been part of the music culture, helping artistes gain exposure, as singer Chezideck explained earlier this year: “The funny thing is that we know it nuh really right, but the music going out there,” singer Chezideck told The Sunday Gleaner.
But, despite the music being more affordable to consumers, piracy harms the artiste and the industry, maintained Professor Long. “Artistes will need to move abroad to make an income and avoid piracy. Guinea in West Africa was trying to develop its industry but piracy meant all the top artistes went to live in Paris, where there is protection.”
“Piracy,” added Professor Long, “presents the same problem here that it does in the United States, every time someone does it, the performer does not get paid.”
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