COPYRIGHT experts in Jamaica say street sales of pirated music and movies have doubled since mid-2004 despite threats of sanctions from the Americans. And so ingrained is bootlegging that even teens are selling to their friends at school to supplement their allowances.

Music piracy, from anecdotal evidence, pulls in tens of thousands weekly for street sellers, from both cassettes and compact disk recordings, easily undercutting sales in music stores at less than a quarter of the price.

“It’s hard to say, but we’ve estimated an overall drop of about 20 to 25 per cent on our total sales,” said Paul Shoucair, manager of Mobile Music, which sells CDs and DVDs in the Liguanea area of Kingston.

“Dancehall, in particular, has been affected tremendously – by about a 30 to 35 per cent decline. Apart from the burning of CDs, illegal downloading affects us too,” said Shoucair.

Disks of the hottest music and artistes that normally retail for $950 to $1,500 on average are sold openly on the streets for $300 to $400. It’s even cheaper on school campuses, at $150 to $200, sometimes less if the transaction is between close friends, according to Sunday Observer checks.

Blank disks retail for $40 to $60.

But copyright enforcers know little of the profile of the true offenders – except that the broad group involves students, street vendors and even established businesses; the authorities also lack data on the money flows from sales.

“It is hard to pinpoint any one group to be blamed for the increase,” said Lonnette Fisher, copyright manager at the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO).

“The increase in the commercial activity is the result of greater access to technology where more persons have computers with internet service at home,” she said.

Camille Royes, attorney-at-law and entertainment specialist, says the illicit business is thriving because the sanctions are insufficient to deter bootleggers.

“There are no stringent punitive measures in place to prevent persons from abusing the system,” said Royes.

“Until we start seeing persons being punished, piracy and copyright infringement will continue to plague the entertainment industry.”

The police, however, had a slightly different take, blaming lenient judges who apply small penalties to pirates caught in the act; and a buying public that is ambivalent to the law.

Under the Copyright Act, offenders are to be fined up to $100,000 per count for pirated material.

“In the majority of the cases, the judges only give out fines between $5,000 and $15,000, and so the persons go back out on the street and continue selling,” said Detective Winston Lindo of the Anti-Piracy Unit of the Organised Crime Investigation Division.

“Those fines being imposed do not help to stop the problem.”

JIPO, though it made no comment on the courts’ handling of such cases, said the general trend is “an average fine of $20,000 or imprisonment of three months”.

Seized items are generally destroyed, but a public burning at the Riverton city dump in June 2004 of pirated material confiscated by the courts has done little to stem the illicit trading of movies and music.

“Despite successes in prosecuting these matters … piracy, counterfeiting and bootlegging continue on a wide scale,” said JIPO in written comment on the status of copyright enforcement.

Lindo said, too, that despite his unit’s involvement in efforts to warn the public through television and radio advertisements the transactions continue to grow.

The sellers operate in New Kingston, Half Way Tree and the downtownarea of Kingston as well as in town centres islandwide.

“Almost every major town you drive in you see them selling. We’ve prosecuted persons in towns as far as Christiana, May Pen, Mandeville and Spanish Town,” said the policeman.

Piracy, worldwide is extremely big business. The loss to American industries in 2004, for example, was estimated at US$13.4 billion, and a report cited countries such as China and Russia as big offenders.

Worldwide, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) said piracy represented US$25 billion to US$30 billion in global losses from illegal copies of films, software, video games and other copyright industries.

The agency said then that some 67 countries were failing to rigorously enforce copyright laws, and urged the US to place 42 of them under review.

Jamaica remains on the American Watch List 301, which tracks intellectual property violations. But the Americans’ concern in 2004 centred more on the cable industry rather than music.

Movie houses in Jamaica too have been hit.

Melanie Graham, the loudest voice to date on the commercial threat, said Palace Amusement Company – Jamaica’s sole cinema company – continues to suffer.

“Since July/August of 2005, our admissions are down about 35 per cent when compared to the previous year,” said Graham, Palace’s head of marketing.

“The pirates on the street are selling copies of the movies that are currently playing in our cinemas, so we get fewer turnouts,” she said.

The Planning Institute of Jamaica, which tracks the country’s economic and social status, reports a 10.5 per cent fall-off in cinema sales in 2004, relative to 2003, leading then to the closure of two cinemas.

Palace also recently announced that it had locked down another cinema in Portmore, because of low traffic.

Desi Young, president of the Jamaica Federation of Musicians, says some artistes and musicians, mostly the emerging talent, conspire with bootleggers to boost sales of their songs.

“Some upcoming artistes believe it will increase their popularity on the streets, and lead to more play on radio and even recording contracts,” said Young.

But the short term gain for the individual, he said, usually results in long term loss for the industry.

“Burning of CDs cuts back on the sale of authentic records and affects the revenue that the music industry collects. More and more artistes and producers are being affected by low sales, both here and abroad,” said the JFM president.

Graham says the Anti-Piracy Unit needs to step up its prosecution of offenders.

“It is hard to compete with them because both business persons and persons on the street are guilty of the criminal offence. It is up to the assigned authorities to step in before it gets worse,” she said.

Lindo says the police are looking to step up surveillance of known vending areas, especially within the capital.

In the meantime, street music was readily available last week at Half Way Tree.

Sellers there told the Sunday Observer that they were well aware of the copyright laws. But for them, it is an economic issue – a source of income in an economy very short on jobs, especially for the unskilled.

“Well, police catch me before and I had to pay almost $200,000 in court,” said a man who called himself Andrew, a seller of burnt CDs.

“A friend of mine was charged $50,000 but we still selling because we don’t see any other source of making money,” he said.

A female vendor said that she sells burnt DVDs with her boyfriend.

“Why people must waste them money go theatre, when them can get the movie fi buy cheap,” she said.

A movie ticket is about $400; DVDs in the stores sell for up to $2,000, but the pirated copies can be had for several hundred dollars.

The Anti-Piracy Unit’s stepped-up campaign will target for prosecution persons who import copyrighted material from abroad with the intent to distribute illegally.

“We are going to start targeting those persons because they import the material from abroad and then copy and sell them here. By doing so, we are in effect attacking the root of the matter,” he said.

The detective also suggested that a levy be placed on blank compact discs and duplication equipment being sold in stores.

JIPO plans to undertake more public education drives to inform Jamaicans about the Copyright Act, intellectual property and the legal implications of piracy during ‘Intellectual Property Month’ in April – targeting media houses, teachers and the general public, through workshops and seminars and library mounted exhibits.

“We need to start teaching students about piracy because there are cases in high schools where students sell pirated CDs and movies for lunch money,” said Fisher.

“With the support of the media and other local partners we will be able to get the information across the island to help solve the problem,” said the copyright manager.

reidt@jamaicaobserver.com