‘Money can be made in mas’

WHILE mas makers usually work out of love for the cultural artform, there is  also money to be made from the copyright to their designs. So stated an attorney during a seminar last Saturday by the National Carnival Bandlead-ers Association (NCBA) at City Hall, Port-of-Spain.

Attorney Anthony Vieira, of the law firm Mair and Company, told band leaders to think beyond Carnival Tuesday, saying, “Look at this genius as tangible pieces of property that can be merchandised to make money.” When designing mas, Vieira said, designers should look at their drawings and start to think of applications, to sell/licence their copyright, for example to a company making brass statuettes or papier-mache moulds of figurines. “Put the image on bed sheets, cups, computer saving screens... the possibilities are endless.”

Saying copyright could bring earnings for the lifetime of one and one’s children, Vieira continued, “Using it in many different forms is what brings in  small but constant streams of revenue. Today’s rich people are people of ideas.” Through intellectual property, he noted, computer magnate Bill Gates and Harry Potter author JK Rowling were the richest man and woman in the world today. Vieira said “works of mas” as a category of copyright only existed in the TT jurisdiction thanks to the efforts of the NCBA at the World Intellectual Property Organisation. But while other countries had legally protected their folklore from commercial misappropriation by others, TT had not yet done so. He urged that steps be taken to protect, preserve and exploit this country’s rich national heritage of folklore.