Syrian Musician: Please Protect My Rights
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 by Patrick Ross
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Imagine being an acclaimed jazz singer. Imagine your country passed a law in 2001 confirming your rights to your music. Imagine your country also is a signatory to international intellectual property treaties obligating enforcement of creators’ rights.
Then imagine your album is registered with your country’s copyright office under someone else’s name and there’s nothing you can do about it. Also imagine that the registration itself is a little useless, since pirates copy and distribute your work with abandon and with no fear that the law prohibiting such action will be enforced.
Welcome to the world of Lena Chamamyan, a Syrian talent who has to be wondering what the point was of recording her first album.
Her story is extreme, but frankly it will ring very true with songwriters and recording artists in the U.S. Perhaps you feel Ms. Chamamyan has no right to earn income off of her recordings, that she should content herself with earning income from performances and merchandise sales. Naturally I disagree. Perhaps you feel any recording she makes should immediately be owned by anyone who can obtain it. Naturally I also disagree. But do you also feel others should profit from her labor when she cannot?
Ms. Chamamyan’s predicament is common throughout developing countries. Most nations, like Syria, have signed the Berne Convention and related treaties. But most signatories don’t enforce those laws, which hurts U.S. artists and rightsholders but also hurts their own artists and rightsholders, and jeopardizes their own creators’ ability to spread that nation’s culture and enrich that nation’s job and tax base.
I would point readers to an excellent study by Mark Schultz and Alec van Gelder on how the rich and vibrant cultures of Africa could create jobs and economic growth by protecting and promoting those cultures, as Nashville did with Appalachian culture.
IP protection creates opportunities for culture internationally to be enriched by giving meaning to the rights held by creators when they create.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:56 am
It is in Syria’s interest to strongly enforce IP rights only when they become a net exporter of creative output. The USA clearly followed this pattern and it would be absurd for us to expect developing nations to act any differently than we did when we were similarly situated. The only way for strong IP enforcement to “create jobs and economic growth” in such countries is for enforcement to be selective, ignoring creative works from other countries. This would violate the treaties they have signed and draw your wrath as well.
May 6th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Bravo, Patrick!
My youngest son is 21 years old and is now doing volunteer work in an orphanage in Kenya. He told me many of the young children there had quite a bit of natural artistic talent. We had a very similar conversation to yours recently.
Broadband Internet access, properly managed, can allow third world counties and developing economies to appear on the global stage almost instantaneously, but, if their artistic works are not protected, how can this truly help their standards of living over the long term or the survival of their unique and fascinating cultures?
I remain hopeful that our new administration realizes the critical nature of this debate, its significance to global economic stability, growth, and prosperity, and that stealing others property (digtial or physical) will begin to have the severe consequences it deserves, both here in this country and abroad.
Many of us are working hard to change some of the world’s view on these issues, Lena. Please don’t give up your faith … or your creative contributions and spirit.
George Riddick
Chairman/CEO
Imageine, Inc.
May 7th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Define “properly managed”.
May 9th, 2009 at 7:07 am
Thank you for sharing this story, Patrick. I notice that you don’t appear to have the “Share” and “Add This” and RSS feeds on this blog. I think you ought to add them, because stories like this are important and fascinating.
In my opinion, your blogs ought to be Stumbled Upon, and Digg(ed), and Reddit(ed), and reposted to Twitter and Facebook and MySpace etc.
I just checked your privacy policy, and there’s nothing that appears to bar anyone from Smak(ing) this blog. So, I have.
May 11th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Hi Rowena,
Please feel free to share our work with the wider world. Just as I did when I worked at a non-profit think tank, we at this non-profit are seeking to educate with our writings, so the farther our work is spread the better. Of course, readers of our blog know we are simply exercising our copyrights in giving it away!
I’ve asked a colleague to look into adding those feed links.
Patrick