Bridgetown.
The office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has placed Barbados on a negative watch list for its tardiness or in some cases refusal to pay entertainers from the United States for their performances of music.
The USTR, the government watchdog for intellectual property issues, placed the island on the list for 2013, and criticize the Barbadian Government for not taking action.
In a statement published on its website, the USTR said: “The United States is concerned about local TV and radio broadcasters in Barbados’ refusal to pay for public performances of music. The United States rights holders complain that both private and Government-owned broadcasters in Barbados either fail to obtain licences from the Copyright Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers Inc. (COSCAP) or fail to pay for all of the applicable rights even if they are licensed by COSCAP".
“In addition, even though the Barbados Copyright Tribunal was finally convened in 2012, it has not yet acted to determine the amount due to COSCAP pursuant to a 2007 judgment of the Barbados Supreme Court that found copyright infringement violations,” it added.
The watch dog agency is also urging Government to take all administrative action necessary to ensure that United States’ composers and songwriters receive compensation owed, without undue delay, for the public performance of their musical works.
