Youth held on piracy charge

A teenager of Vermont who allegedly plies his trade on the streets of Kingstown as a music pirate became the first person in St.Vincent and the Grenadines to be charged by the police for piracy of copyright material.

On Tuesday, July 4, 19-year-old Norris Ollivierre was arrested and charged for allegedly selling a CD with sound recordings belonging to music producer Adrian Bailey on July 3 without Bailey’s consent.{{more}} The report was made by Bailey, one of the persons who joined several artistes on Wednesday, June 28 in a picket against the issue of piracy on the streets of Kingstown.

Ollivierre, who re-appeared before Acting Senior Magistrate, Donald Browne, on Wednesday, July 5, was placed on $1,000 bail and is due to reappear in court on July 17. When the young man who is represented by lawyer Arthur Williams took the defendant’s stand, he pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Acting Senior Magistrate Browne, stated that he is very displeased by what is going on.

“The intellectual property holder is getting nothing when you sell their music, you must be careful,” Browne warned.

Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police, Keith Miller, said he was taken aback by the protest action staged by artistes last week although he had promised to take action to deal with the matter of piracy.

Miller told journalists at a press conference on Friday, June 30, the artistes had “put the cart before the horse”.

The commissioner described the artistes’ action as unfortunate.

Miller said at a meeting with the artistes he had told them that Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Lenroy Brewster, was given the instructions to set up a task force to deal with the situation, and he had created such establishment without hesitation.

Miller disclosed that at the meeting with the artistes, he raised the issue of piracy before the artistes had the opportunity to do so.

He said the artistes complained to him that they had made reports to the police in the past but had not received any redress.

“I told them let’s start afresh, make the reports now,” said Miller.

The Ministry of Culture continues to warn the music pirates that the police had made sweep number one last week and will be out again specifically to look for pirated music.

The ministry, disclosing measures that were put in place to deal with the issue of piracy said the proper legislation had been in place since 2003 when the modern Copyright Law was passed and the Commercial and Intellectual Property Office established in 2004.