Camcorder taping not illegal

THE EDITOR: On page four of Newsday February 25, 2003, the picture of someone camcorder taping with caption “Free for All” seems to suggest it is illegal to videotape a performance. Is not the law against taping for illegal profit? Also, the show was live on TV. Is it illegal to tape it off the TV/VCR too?

Then we should ban VCRs! If the guy with the camcorder wanted to make money off video tapes (guilty until proven innocent) wouldn’t it be less stressful and tiring to tape it off the TV/VCR? Isn’t the TV/VCR where most sales of illegal Carnival videos in places like New York, Miami or Toronto come from? Check it out and you will see that this is so!

Do you know how difficult it is to use a camcorder to tape an “entire event”?

There are people blocking you with their bodies, their hands in de air, their flags etc and your hands do get tired. You just can’t produce anything as close to the quality and completeness of the TV version.

It’s much easier to set the VCR to tape the show.

So why does a person bring their camcorder? Answer: for personal versions of events. To capture things that only you or your family or friends may be interested in. Including shots of your wife and friends dancing or your kids jumping up followed by your shot of your favourite calypsonian. And believe me, you will put that camcorder back in the bag long before the show is over because yuh hand tired.

These people with camcorders are mostly living abroad, sometimes in places where there is little Trinidad culture. They are starved for

Trinidad culture. They spend plenty money here to take back things that are personally Trinidadian to them for personal use. While it is illegal to reproduce performances to make a profit without getting permission and the performers benefitting, what the people with the camcorders are doing is as harmless as taping something off the VCR for personal use.

Furthermore, it is the people who come down here, like your camcorder guy, who are the ones that support the culture of Trinidad and Tobago all year round. They are the ones who buy the original CDs and pay to keep Trinidad artiste employed after Ash Wednesday when the country mostly abandons its music and goes back to American and Jamaican fare. And they mostly travel BWIA. So please, I beg you, take a different attitude towards the camcorder people.

They are not breaking the law. It is much easier to get quality Carnival performances off the TV/VCR if your intention is to sell illegally.

Lastly, COTT has its hands very full dealing with the very sad state of CD piracy in Trinidad. Now, there is a real problem you in the press need to focus on. COTT needs to be strongly supported in this real endeavour.

JOHN WILLIAMS
Home for Carnival
Dallas, USA