by Joe Segera
We have many laws in our statute books including that much vaunted law on Intellectual Property, not to mention the Copyright law. Arising from them, the question could be asked whether these laws especially the law concerning Intellectual Property is being enforced.

In this country there are a whole array of playwrights, dramatists, singers and writers whose works have virtually become public property.

Take the songs sung by some of our renowned artistes which are freely played not only over radio and TV, but even sung by anybody on TV and radio without an acknowledgement to the man or woman to whom the songs belong.

Right now the situation is such that songs sung by our frontline singers such as Rukmani Devi, Sunil Santha, Edward Jayakody, Victor Ratnayake, and a host of others are being shamelessly and blatantly sung over our airwaves and TV by mere tyros and imitators.

Even the songs sung by old Tower Hall artistes suffer the same fate.

In other countries this kind of thing is unheard of. Could one imagine somebody else singing the songs of Latha Mangeshkar, K. L. Saigal or Mohamed Rafi over All India Radio or Dhoordarshan. It is the same with almost all other countries as well.

Take for instance, if somebody else sings Elton John’s "Candle In The Wind" in public such offender will be sued for heavy damages. But to repeat, such actions are unheard of in this thrice blessed country of ours.

Before we come to other subjects under the same category, we are sure many would be surprised to hear that copyright and intellectual property violations are continuing to be violated and abused in a country where lives a world authority on the law of intellectual property. The reference is to Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar who is also the man who had a hand in drafting, this country’s Intellectual Property Act.

Mention must also be made that a few years ago a small group of radio and TV artistes led by reputed singer Maurice Dahanayake held a meeting and decided to form a society to ensure that the Copyright Act and the Intellectual Property Act were enforced, but unfortunately there appears to have been no follow-up action after that.

Now let us look at our drama and theatre scene today. There too dramas and theatre appear to be anybody’s and everybody’s property. There were even instances where attempts were made somewhere in Kandy by some unscrupulous persons to stage Dr. Sarachchandra’s "Maname" without the permission of his heirs.

That happened a few years ago when the great dramatists wife made attempts to stop it through the police. And it was only a couple of months ago that Mrs. Sarachchandra appeared on TV to complain that certain parties were brazenly copying her famous husband’s literary and artistic works. She her self requested some kind of state protection for the literary and artistic works of this country’s foremost authority on drama and the arts.

Even for plagiarists the field is wide in Sri Lanka. Many years ago there was the case of a Supreme Court Judge who delivered a public lecture on the "Mind Of The Murderer", quoting or citing without acknowledgement the author of the book on that subject.

At that time the Editor of the then "Times of Ceylon" was no less a person than one of Asia’s leading Editors, Frank Moraes who published the Judges lecture in the "Sunday Times" side by side with whole chapters of the book.

In the Sinhala literary scene it is an open secret that years ago books written by many Sinhala authors were bought as Copyrights on the payment of a pittance to the poor, struggling authors. Copyrights were even bought for sums low as a hundred rupees.

With the background being such it is time for the ministry of Cultural Affairs to ensure the protection of our authors, playwrights, writers, singers, musicians and artistes. Minister Lakshman Jayakody could act on the matter by enforcing the law after consulting the authority on the subject, Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar.

Some of our artistes of today appear to be more concerned about calling themselves "Doctors" without any strength of research or Thesis at any recog-nized university. Art-istes like Amaradeva and Chitrasena are great in their own right who do not need doctorates for their recognition.