Chairman of the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT), Selby Wilson, has warned that the number of people in T&T affected by intellectual property violations will continue to grow if that illegal practice continues unchecked.Wilson told the TATT's 13th ICT Open Forum on Wednesday that piracy not only affects big businesses but people from all walks of life."A common misconception is that optical disc piracy, that is the piracy of CDs, DVDs and CD-ROMs, the use of illegal software programmes and even cable television piracy, only affect major conglomerates in large countries. The truth is that these acts also victimise many local artistes and consumers in our even smaller markets creating a cadre of victims that will continue to grow each year if intellectual property violations are allowed to continue unchecked," he said.
"Intellectual property rights are a critical aspect of such an enabling environment. T&T has a modern framework for intellectual property rights consistent with its obligations under various international agreements, most notably those pursuant to its membership in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). "Intellectual property rights affect every aspect of the life of every citizen as these rights are attached to the various forms of information which we interact. Included among these are various forms of literary and artistic products which maybe protected by copyrights," Wilson said.
He said effective regulation of the broadcast sector is important."Many of these literary and artistic products are received via the broadcast media. The broadcast sector is one of the industries considered part of the core of the copyright enabled economy. This is so because the act of commercial broadcasting primarily concerns the production and distribution of audio visual content to the public which are in almost all instances protected by some form of intellectual property," he said.
Wilson said compliance has improved over the years."Before the liberalisation of the telecommunications and broadcasting sector, which culminated in the implementation of the Telecommunications Act, piracy, in particular for cable television, was a major problem in T&T. However the market has come a long way since that time," he said.
