But the 56-page CISIC report suggested that the body was not altogether surprised by the sharply reduced revenues from royalties. “Considering the economic crisis and the ongoing turmoil in the record industry, it isn’t surprising that collections of authors’ rights royalties went down,” the report said.
The 2009 decline in royalties for the use of creative intellectual property owned by Caribbean creators marked the first time in at least three years that that such a decline had been experienced in the region says CISAC whose members include Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Barbados and St. Lucia.
The report hinted at the possibility that the lack of vibrancy among the societies responsible for the protection of copyright in the respective Caribbean territories may be one of the primary reasons for declining Caribbean music and art industries. While no mention is made of Guyana in the CISAC report, local musicians and writers have openly accused the Government of Guyana of being complicit in copyright transgression insofar as the authorities have failed to clamp down on the open and widespread illegal sale of books and music. Some of these sales are undertaken by established commercial houses while itinerant vendors run a brisk trade in copied CD’s and DVD’s. Of late, the police have been clamping down on vendors who push carts through city streets, music blaring. However, the clampdown has more to do with what the authorities deem to be a noise nuisance rather than with copyright transgression.
In 2008 a total of euros 3.29m in royalties accrued to the Caribbean for music while the visual arts raked in a modest US$500,000. In 2007 the regional arts and music industry earned euros 4.5m in royalties of which visual arts earned euros 862,000 and music earned euros 3-6 million. In 2006 total royalties earned were euros $4.3 million of which the audio visual sector earned euros 936,000 and music earned euros $3.4 million.
The CISAC report said that “in spite of an unfavourable exchange rate in relation to the euro, South America saw a healthy rise in its collection underscoring the vibrancy of the societies in this region. It enabled the Latin American/Caribbean region as a whole to record growth even though Central America’s results were down and the Caribbean plunged 32 per cent.”
According to the CISAC report global royalties declined 1.5 per cent in 2008 to euros 7 billion, the first decline in four years.
