Letters and Comment

Copyright for small creators - The Lion spreads the word

Thank you for authorizing the Intellectual Property Office of Papua New Guinea to distribute free copies of the article, The Return of the Lion (April 2006), as part of our public awareness campaign to illustrate the importance of copyright protection. The current awareness program relates to regulating and assisting in the establishment of collective management organizations. Such organizations are a necessary component of the industry and may provide technical assistance to the small creator in Papua New Guinea. A point which the article subtly promotes is that the small creator cannot stand against the entertainment giants without technical assistance.

Your readers in the field of copyright, especially from developing countries, may be interested to know that the IP Office of Papua New Guinea intends to introduce a monitoring system, whereby users of copyright works may lose their respective business operating licenses as a penalty for nonpayment of creators’ royalties.

From Jonathan Amnol, Legal Officer

Intellectual Property Office, Investment Promotion Authority , P apua New Guinea

Consolidating the digital music revolution

Your news report on the boom in online and mobile music sales (MIDEM - Music Industry Cheered by Digital Sales, Jan/Feb 2006) reflects the growing variety and diversity of new media outlets.

As online and mobile music become part of the fabric of our everyday lives, the pressure is fairly and squarely on content and copyright owners to consolidate negotiations and licensing on a country-wide or, even better, regional or global basis. This will simplify the licensing process and reduce the barriers to entry for multimedia companies, without whom the industry will suffocate and die.

We look forward to WIPO's playing an active role, in conjunction with the international recording industry association IFPI, and local associations, publishers and regulators, in managing the transition from a pure-play physical retail world, to a more centralized environment where the market determines price, where consumers own what they buy and can enjoy and personalize their entertainment in whatever format, and at whatever time, they desire.

So what are...