TTOC: You can't take photos of mas costumes without our permission

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

$250,000 or a ten-year im­pris­on­ment if caught.

Video­g­ra­phers, pho­tog­ra­phers, broad­cast­ers and so­cial me­dia users (in­clud­ing mem­bers of the pub­lic) who in­tend to cap­ture any as­pect of work of mas use in any form of com­mer­cial in­tent di­rect­ly or in­di­rect­ly with­out prop­er ac­cred­i­ta­tion for this year’s Car­ni­val can face a hefty fine of $250,000 or a ten-year im­pris­on­ment.

This was the warn­ing sent yes­ter­day dur­ing a me­dia con­fer­ence by pres­i­dent of the T&T Copy­right Col­lec­tion Or­gan­i­sa­tion Dr Vi­jay Ram­lal.

The me­dia con­fer­ence was held at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah. Al­so, present was pres­i­dent of the T&T Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion (TTC­BA) Ger­ard Weekes.

Ram­lal ex­plained that for many years there has been three dis­tinct ar­eas of In­tel­lec­tu­al Prop­er­ty Pro­tec­tion: Copy­right, La­belling right and works of mas.

Weekes said over the years there has been a lot of dis­re­spect for this as­pect of copy­right and added that the in­ten­tion of the TTC­BA from this year on is to right the wrong.

He said, “Mem­bers of the mas fra­ter­ni­ty have not been able to ben­e­fit from copy­right is­sues that plague the fra­ter­ni­ty. For too long it has been a sit­u­a­tion where we see all of our art­work, de­signs be­ing pro­duced in mag­a­zines and be­ing pho­tographed and streamed and the stake­hold­ers or the mas prac­ti­tion­ers have not been ben­e­fit­ting.”

“The TTOC is the on­ly au­tho­rised body in T&T ca­pa­ble of deal­ing with Works of Mas and col­lect­ing the rights for same. It is im­por­tant for mem­bers of the pub­lic both for­eign and lo­cal who are com­ing of have the in­ten­tions of cap­tur­ing any form of pho­tog­ra­phy, videog­ra­phy doc­u­men­tary get ac­cred­it­ed be­come ac­cred­it­ed so we can as­sist in hav­ing mas prac­ti­tion­ers ben­e­fit­ting,” he added.

Ram­lal said there is a se­ri­ous in­fringe­ment of rights and added that he is hop­ing for en­force­ment from this year.

Ram­lal al­so used the op­por­tu­ni­ty to dis­close that the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) still owes them over $475,000 from last year’s sea­son.

- by Rhondor Dowlat

http://www.cnc3.co.tt/press-release/don ... ssion-ttoc

[paid_influencer]

if you are a lawyer without a lucrative job, start your own "copyright authority"

this carnival, it have at least 3 "copyright authority" to pay: COTT, TTCO, and Awesome Copyright.

next year there may be more, depending on how much lawyers jump up in the dance.

[pugboy]

Every year it’s the same proclaimations
I wonder how much they charge soca artistes to register with them

On the other hand every single masqueraded should be paid royalties from these so-called authorities

[paid_influencer]

i like how he threatens foreigners with legal action.

go to america and tell the judge you own "rights to works of mas". they will laugh you out the building with that garbage.

only in trinidad "works of mas" is a thing with legally protected status.

[pugboy]

They just out to make a lil end and happy to get the soca artistes to pay annual fees
Plus any threat fees collected from fetes etc
One year one of them threaten to shutdown Fatima all inclusive

[Monk BANzai]

TTOC on some malarkey...ent they used to charge $2500 for the license but not much ppl applied for it so in 2017 they dropped it to $500 with hope to get more "social media" bloggers etc to pay for it?

I don't know what they planning to charge this year, but every year this topic comes up, they had meetings etc. I remember in 2015 NCC had a similar license if you wanted to shoot on the stage. FototakeOuters say "Oh? OK!.." and promptly went and shoot on the road.

At this rate...who’s to stop them from saying you can’t take pics of Maracas Bay - cause the government owns it??

[hong kong phooey]

So for a layman like myself could someone clarify
does this mean i cannot take pictures of the king and queen of the band ?
or i cant take pictures of people in the band in their costume, ? including myself or family members ?

[matr1x]

99% of bandmembers unphotogenic anyhow

[pugboy]

Correct, once the picture contains content of carnival
E.g. Costumes, kings, queens, beads, bikini

You can take the pic , just need to go pay them their extortion fee

So for a layman like myself could someone clarify
does this mean i cannot take pictures of the king and queen of the band ?
or i cant take pictures of people in the band in their costume, ? including myself or family members ?

[justheretoreadthecomments]

So for a layman like myself could someone clarify
does this mean i cannot take pictures of the king and queen of the band ?
or i cant take pictures of people in the band in their costume, ? including myself or family members ?

well the article says " com­mer­cial in­tent di­rect­ly or in­di­rect­ly" so its a matter of defining what is same

[screwbash]

dem mas men s rest hud pay the foreigners to take pictures of they lil jokey mas an carnival and showing it to therest of the world cause clearly ministy of tourism doh do one fork to showcase trinidad. the rest of world like new orleans or rio have bigger and better carnival. everyone shud stop supporting the mas and the soca and just let carnival turn to two days ah rum drinking before lent.

[hydroep]

Steups...every year is the same ol' talk. IIRC after the public beatup last year they backtrack and say you can take pictures so long as you don't profit from it which is just common sense...

[FordeG]

dem mas men s rest hud pay the foreigners to take pictures of they lil jokey mas an carnival and showing it to therest of the world cause clearly ministy of tourism doh do one fork to showcase trinidad. the rest of world like new orleans or rio have bigger and better carnival. everyone shud stop supporting the mas and the soca and just let carnival turn to two days ah rum drinking before lent.

Exactly, why do even bother. Our carnival is a Pappy show for people wanting to play stush and parade around drink and half naked. I cannot see the appeal of this and it really must be for stupid people. I can't see any sane person willing to spend 5000 for this!! And we shut down the entire country for this. Such madness.

[Slartibartfast]

Take pics --> Upload to Imgur --> Reference Imgur as the source of the pics and carry on with business as usual.

How are they going to prove that the person taking the picture benefited from it?

[pugboy]

They don’t care about that
These folks have other jobs and this is just an annual thug hustle to make some quick change out of local photogs who coward and bend to their threats

Take pics --> Upload to Imgur --> Reference Imgur as the source of the pics and carry on with business as usual.

How are they going to prove that the person taking the picture benefited from it?

[justheretoreadthecomments]

dem mas men s rest hud pay the foreigners to take pictures of they lil jokey mas an carnival and showing it to therest of the world cause clearly ministy of tourism doh do one fork to showcase trinidad. the rest of world like new orleans or rio have bigger and better carnival. everyone shud stop supporting the mas and the soca and just let carnival turn to two days ah rum drinking before lent.

Exactly, why do even bother. Our carnival is a Pappy show for people wanting to play stush and parade around drink and half naked. I cannot see the appeal of this and it really must be for stupid people. I can't see any sane person willing to spend 5000 for this!! And we shut down the entire country for this. Such madness.

There's a ched to unleash your better -than-thou complex here.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=738562

[tr1ad]

like someone have indigestion

[Miktay]

dem mas men s rest hud pay the foreigners to take pictures of they lil jokey mas an carnival and showing it to therest of the world cause clearly ministy of tourism doh do one fork to showcase trinidad. the rest of world like new orleans or rio have bigger and better carnival. everyone shud stop supporting the mas and the soca and just let carnival turn to two days ah rum drinking before lent.

Exactly, why do even bother. Our carnival is a Pappy show for people wanting to play stush and parade around drink and half naked. I cannot see the appeal of this and it really must be for stupid people. I can't see any sane person willing to spend 5000 for this!! And we shut down the entire country for this. Such madness.

Tdad Cval iz far and away better than Norleans Mardi Gras...

COTT and the rest are gangstas...looking to eat-ah-food.

[teems1]

TTOC on some malarkey...ent they used to charge $2500 for the license but not much ppl applied for it so in 2017 they dropped it to $500 with hope to get more "social media" bloggers etc to pay for it?

I don't know what they planning to charge this year, but every year this topic comes up, they had meetings etc. I remember in 2015 NCC had a similar license if you wanted to shoot on the stage. FototakeOuters say "Oh? OK!.." and promptly went and shoot on the road.

At this rate...who’s to stop them from saying you can’t take pics of Maracas Bay - cause the government owns it??

If you're planning to use the pics/video for commercial use to make money, then you would require a license similar to how the US has their filming permits.

If it's personal pics for your family vacation album you don't need a permit.

[Slartibartfast]

Under all seriousness the idea of collecting royalties on carnival is not a bad idea by itself. But what is being done with the royalties collected?

That punishment kinda steep though. You really going to throw a man in jail for taking pics?

[88sins]

dem mas men s rest hud pay the foreigners to take pictures of they lil jokey mas an carnival and showing it to therest of the world cause clearly ministy of tourism doh do one fork to showcase trinidad. the rest of world like new orleans or rio have bigger and better carnival. everyone shud stop supporting the mas and the soca and just let carnival turn to two days ah rum drinking before lent.

Exactly, why do even bother. Our carnival is a Pappy show for people wanting to play stush and parade around drink and half naked. I cannot see the appeal of this and it really must be for stupid people. I can't see any sane person willing to spend 5000 for this!! And we shut down the entire country for this. Such madness.

There's a ched to unleash your better -than-thou complex here.

http://www.trinituner.com/v4/forums/vie ... 4&t=738562

nope, he eh wanted there either

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

TTOC on some malarkey...ent they used to charge $2500 for the license but not much ppl applied for it so in 2017 they dropped it to $500 with hope to get more "social media" bloggers etc to pay for it?

I don't know what they planning to charge this year, but every year this topic comes up, they had meetings etc. I remember in 2015 NCC had a similar license if you wanted to shoot on the stage. FototakeOuters say "Oh? OK!.." and promptly went and shoot on the road.

At this rate...who’s to stop them from saying you can’t take pics of Maracas Bay - cause the government owns it??

If you're planning to use the pics/video for commercial use to make money, then you would require a license similar to how the US has their filming permits.

If it's personal pics for your family vacation album you don't need a permit.

If a photographer pays for a permit, takes a photo of mas and then sells that photo to Maco Magazine (another commercial entity) to publish. What are the legal ramifications there?

[lalloboy101]

so if I playing mass and take a selfie, I could get charge for taking photo of myself if I choose to sell it

[teems1]

TTOC on some malarkey...ent they used to charge $2500 for the license but not much ppl applied for it so in 2017 they dropped it to $500 with hope to get more "social media" bloggers etc to pay for it?

I don't know what they planning to charge this year, but every year this topic comes up, they had meetings etc. I remember in 2015 NCC had a similar license if you wanted to shoot on the stage. FototakeOuters say "Oh? OK!.." and promptly went and shoot on the road.

At this rate...who’s to stop them from saying you can’t take pics of Maracas Bay - cause the government owns it??

If you're planning to use the pics/video for commercial use to make money, then you would require a license similar to how the US has their filming permits.

If it's personal pics for your family vacation album you don't need a permit.

If a photographer pays for a permit, takes a photo of mas and then sells that photo to Maco Magazine (another commercial entity) to publish. What are the legal ramifications there?

No idea.

IANAL but I do know there is a permit system in place in the US if you're to film in public areas. Film scouts usually do this grunt work but it has to be done otherwise there may be consequences.

[16 cycles]

COTT yearly license is another racket....

[K74T]

Corrupted Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago

[paid_influencer]

If you're planning to use the pics/video for commercial use to make money, then you would require a license similar to how the US has their filming permits.

If it's personal pics for your family vacation album you don't need a permit.

this isn't the case. A filming permit is used for logistics of actual filming, such as blocking the sidewalk, obstructing traffic, displaying fake weapons or uniforms, etc. 1 A film permit isn't related at all to intellectual property rights.

What's being claimed by TTCO is that they own the rights to "works of mas". Now that term "works of mas" is purposefully vague, misguiding the average man to think that TTCO owns rights to all images of mas costumes and revellers regardless of venue or circumstance.

But the legislation has a specific definition.2

"work of mas” is an original production intended to be performed by a person or a group of persons in which an artistic work ... intended to be performed on stage, platform, street or other venue.

The key parts here:

1. The costumes themselves are not "works of mas". They are only considered "works of mas" when used as part of the bandleader's intended performance.

2. The key phrase here is "original production intended to be performed," meaning the scope is limited only to events organized by the bandleaders (official street routes, stages, etc). If you are outside of the official band events, lewwe say you are at Maracas bay eating a shake and bake, you are not part of their "work of mas".

so feel free to take pictures of your costume, commercial use or otherwise, but not during the "official" bandleader events.