Govt urged to get tough on piracy

 

As a copyright-conscious artist, how important, do you think, is copyright to the music industry?

I believe copyright is one of the most crucial issues in any country. It concerns not just music, but many other things. The main point is that it is an integral part of everything. 

Many people still have little or no understanding of the copyright issue and run into trouble with the issue. What difficulties have you encountered so far?

The law is our main difficulty. We’ve been using the copyright law that was enacted in 1914. The law needs further amendment in response to the changing cultural and social circumstances in the country.  We need to add several amendments to the law, in fact. When we talk about copyright, the first thing that comes to mind is the law. We have been subject to the same copyright law since 1914. When I consulted a lawyer, I was told that the compensation for a copyright infringement is only Ks 25 (US$0.25), according to the existing law. That's outrageous! The authorities need stricter law enforcement.

 

Now that many artists are more conscious of copyright protection, what measures are you taking to protect your work?

Ko Maung Maung Zaw Latt and I have prepared some measures in advance for [the protection of our music’s copyright]. Copyright is a complicated issue. In term of music, a song cannot be completed on its own. So the copyright of this song extends to those involved in making the song. The composer is the original owner of the song’s copyright, which is also co-owned by the singer, the band, and the technicians who do the mixing. I can't ban the use of my song just because I wrote it. So we have consulted with our lawyer to come up with options that ensure the fair use of the song by its potential users such as FM radio stations.

  People mistakenly believe that we can stop others from using our songs. Actually we can't do that. We can't tell people not to air, sing in competitions, or use it. We can only set the rules that are beneficial to both sides. For example, there are now many singing competitions in the country. We may think we can ban the use of our songs at the competitions, but we can't do that in reality. We can charge Ks 20,000 under the regulations of the Myanmar Music Association, but we don’t want to charge them. We ask the contestants to sign a contract with us to ensure that they abide by the rules and regulations. While it’s okay for them to sing our songs in a competition, we won't allow them to sing our songs in a concert for commercial purposes after the competition is over.

 

With those in the music industry more conscious of copyright, what impact will this have on the industry?

I think there will be a lot of changes. With the entertainment sector growing rapidly, some of the hosts of TV and FM radio programmes keep airing [our songs] without knowing [that they are breaching the copyright laws.] But some of them are doing it knowingly. I think more interest in copyright-related activities would be crucial.

 

Will it be possible to protect the copyright of music?

That’s the biggest challenge for the entire world. There’s a thin line between originality and plagiarism. Some people think it’s okay to pirate an artist’s song since he has copied someone else’s material from overseas. But even our own material has been pirated anyway. We need the government to do more by holding official discussions and enforcing the law to ensure our music is protected by copyright.