Writer's Lignum Vitae Writing Competition – How a Songwriting Competition helps Writers as JACAP hunts down Royalties

“The creators of music are unhappy with the illegal use of their works and have mandated JACAP to take violators to court for infringement of their copyright”

General Manager at JACAP Lydia Rose on their decision to basically to all of Traditional Media, both Radio and Television to Court for unpaid Royalties

Those of you who have begun to read my latest blog MICO Wars The Teacher Force Awakens, may have notice that I recently did a post on the Lignum Vitae Writing Awards as per my MICO Wars Blog post entitled “JA$1 million Lignum Vitae Writing Awards launched to encourage New Jamaican Writers”.

Yes folks, JA$1 million up for grabs, albeit you’ll probably be lucky to win in only one of each of the categories that are represented by the Jean D’Costa Award for children’s fiction, the Una Marson Award for adult literature and Vic Reid Award for young adult fiction.

Still, this got me thinking; after all this time we’ve finally got our own Writing competition, thanks to the intervention of JAWS (Jamaica Writers Society) and JAMCOPY (Jamaican Copyright Licensing Agency).

This is Equivalent to the Jamaica Blog Awards and now the Caribbean Blog Awards. But what about songwriters or even better, singers of music who write original Musical score, lyrics and songs as argued in the article “We need a songwriting competition”, published Saturday February 21 2015 by Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner?

Writers time has come – How a Songwriting competition with Digicel Rising Stars Money help Writers

Geezam, the Technology blog I am an Associate Editor for, recently won an award for Best Technology blog as mentioned in my blog article entitled “How Google Forms creates Online Questionnaires and Surveys - Professional Themes makes Drag-and-Drop Questionnaires and Surveys for your Blog or Website”.

Caribbean Blog Awards, which launched in 2014, is the closest thing to what the Lignum Vitae Writing Awards, is now finally stepping up to the plate for writers, many of whom have had to put writing to the side as a hobby and concentrate on either commercial writing or blogging.

So when the Lignum Vitae Writing Awards were announced, I was justly excited but critical, sparing no chances to skewer the “old people” for letting the condition of writers get to the point as noted in my MICO Wars Blog post entitled “JA$1 million Lignum Vitae Writing Awards launched to encourage New Jamaican Writers”.

In a world where writing is no longer “cool”, many writers like myself have turned to blogging. Some have turned over more commercially lucrative waters such as Songwriting, earning money from royalties whenever the song is played or aired abroad. But here in Jamaica that is not the case.

There is a problem; copyright infringement!

Songs written by many of my creative countrymen that end up being played on Radio and Television are often played without the permission of the copyright holders and without due payment of royalties.

This is unfair, as when these Traditional Media houses play the music of international artiste, they have to pay the royalties that they demand as noted in the article “Royalties Keep Flowing Abroad - Jamaican Songwriters Still Missing Out On Earnings”, published Tuesday May 6, 2014, The Jamaica Gleaner.

Many of these songwriters are members of JACAP (Jamaica Association of Authors Composers and Publishers), a very good means of copyright your artistic work as reported in my blog article entitled “@JIPOOnline, Protectors of Jamaican Intellectual Property Rights - How Jamaican Dancehall and Reggae Artiste, Inventors and Design Engineers protect their Intellectual Property from The Book Thief”.

So they’ve decided that enough is enough.

JACAP Takes Traditional Media to Court for Unpaid Royalties – Necessary to boost Songwriting

Since Monday March 9^th 2015, JACAP has announced that they’ve begun filing lawsuits against these Media houses to recover unpaid Royalties as reported in the article “Lawsuits filed against media houses for copyright breaches, more to come  - JACAP”, published Monday, March 09, 2015 10:05 AM, The Jamaica Observer.

JACAP as announced in a Press Release on Monday March 9^th 2015 has dragged the following Traditional Media houses before the Supreme Court thus far:

1.      CVM Television Limited

2.      Grove Broadcasting Limited (IRIE FM & ZIP 103 FM)

3.      Island Broadcasting Services Ltd 

4.      KLAS Sports Radio

5.      Nationwide News

6.      News Talk 93 FM

They've also issued cease and desist letters to the following Radio Stations, many of which are new as listed in my MICO Wars article entitled “How to get Streaming Jamaican Radio Stations”:

1.      Bess FM

2.      KC Gospel

3.      Love FM

4.      Mega JAMZ FM

5.      Mello FM

6.      Sun City Radio

7.      TBC Radio

Folks, this is just the beginning, as they already have the cable and venue operators, promoters and hotels in their crosshairs, with an aim to pay out even more than the JA$180 million they've thus far collected since 1999 when they came into operation.

I am hoping that Traditional Media and others that use the music, Lyrics and Score of the various artiste and songwriters comply with the law and pay up. It would encourage more writers of original music to produce more work.

More importantly, it is necessary to pave the way for any such Songwriting Competition in the future, as writers of original Songs, Lyrics, musical score and arrangement will feel more encouraged to produce original music if they know that they can make a livelihood from Royalties when their work receives airplay.

Here’s the link:

Background on the Lignum Vitae Writing Awards

The Lignum Vitae Writing Awards Facebook Pages

The Jamaica Writer’s Society Website

The Jamaica Writer’s Society Facebook Page

JIPO

JAMCOPY