Dear Editor,

The Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica (BCJ) has taken note of the article headlined “Unlicensed Cable Company Lands Ja on IP Watch List”, which was published in The Daily Observer on May 9, 2013.

It is unfortunate that many readers have been given the distorted view that Jamaica is on the watch list because of “an unlicensed” cable company. The Broadcasting Commission is not aware of any such “unlicensed” cable company operating in Jamaica and the issue of cable company licensing by BCJ forms no part of the reason that Jamaica is on the USTR watch list.

The “serious concern” of the United States, as outlined at the very beginning of the 2013 Special 301 Report on Jamaica, is “the need to enact the draft Patents and Designs Act”. This has nothing to do with the cable sector. However, the report goes on to add that “Jamaica’s largest cable operator has not yet compensated performing rights organisations for the public performances of the music”.

The following points should set the record straight:

1. The Broadcasting Commission has received no complaint or report from any rights holder alleging that Jamaica’s largest cable company has failed to compensate rights organisations for the public performance of music. Were such a report made, the Commission would investigate and take the appropriate regulatory actions. Any suggestion of regulatory laxity in dealing with copyright matters in the cable sector is therefore false; and

2. The public should also be well aware that copyright has a direct bearing on the work of the Broadcasting Commission because of previously widely publicised enforcement actions. Even anecdotally, it should be evident that great progress has been made to bring about copyright compliance by cable operators. Indeed, it is a credit to our work that Jamaica is no longer being cited on the watch list for piracy of cable channels.

Finally, the public is being assured that the Broadcasting Commission will continue to enforce compliance with the Copyright Act, and maintain its close collaborative relations with rights holders, locally and internationally.

Cordel Green

Executive Director

Broadcasting Commission