Kurdish Artists Unite!
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 by Patrick Ross
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If anyone wants to see how culture looks without copyright law, hop on a plane to Iraq.
Head north to the Kurdish semi-autonomous region locals call Kurdistan. Next, find a recording artist, author or software designer making a living off of their work. Okay, I’ll admit that last one is impossible.
Thanks to Dean Kay I have discovered an article (in English, fortunately) about the absolute lawlessness one finds in the Kurdish region of Iraq regarding copyright. The Kurdish Globe article must be read top to bottom, but here’s an excerpt:
Abdul Jabbar said since 2006 he has not made any video clips for his songs due to financial reasons. “The cost of my 2006 album was US$12,000, after I distributed the album to music stores; sales for the original copy were only US$1,000 because music stores illegally copied my album. I know some stores sold 3,000 copies.”
Before any copyright critics point out that this piracy is different from file-sharing because it is physical duplication, not digital, and because the music stores are profiting, let me say this — no one would be buying those counterfeit CDs if the residents there actually had PCs and broadband access. They’d download them and upload them without authorization and without compensation to the artist. The mindset that ignores creators’ rights is the same between the music store owner and the file sharer.
The Kurdish parliament has refused to consider adoption of copyright laws, despite calls for them. But the issue is larger than that:
Manager of Chwar Chra for arts production, Irfan Zangana, believes that a law alone can’t solve the problem. He said the people in Kurdistan do not have the culture to respect artists’ products. “Recently, a singer asked us to publish and distribute his album; we rejected it because we can’t guarantee the singer that his album won’t be copied by music stores and individuals,” said Zangana.
He said lack of a copyright law has created a negative impact on artists’ psyches as well as on the companies that produce arts.
The article quotes a software engineer who isn’t sure why he bothered to create translation software, since everyone is pirating it. Assuming Irfan Zangana is right and that the situation is affecting artists’ psyches, how many pieces of software now won’t be written? How many songs won’t be composed and recorded? How many books won’t be published?
All cultures are driven by copyright, and in the modern age communities grow their culture through strong copyright law. Kurdish artists deserve more than what their leaders are giving them. They deserve a right to succeed or fail based on their talent and execution of rights.
