Small Business Struggles in Belize
NOTICE: I have amended this from the original post, as the issue has been resolved honourably with the Facebook page in question. However I think it is good to leave it up in some form, so that people become more aware of copyright laws and intellectual property rights.
I have previously written about some of the challenges of managing a business in Belize…well let’s just say the struggles continue!
There is of course the expected challenges of others thinking that we are making Big Bucks (oh if only…we barely break even!) and therefore also starting to offer Garifuna drumming lessons and related. I’m sure they will quickly realise it’s not a booming business, but we hold no hard feelings…everyone is simply trying to make a living in a small town with few opportunities.
But today, I became very upset after finding out that one of our designs, which is used in our logo on our business cards, website, tshirts and more, had been taken and used on Tshirts by another organisation and Facebook Page.
Now here are our original designs, that were constructed from a full colour photo of Mario McDonald’s (my father-in-law’s) mahogany primero and segunda drums, that I then converted into black and white, edited in various ways to improve the look, posterised, and added the white outline to make it “pop” more. I.e. it is no longer just a photo. This (for a novice like me at least) was not easy, and very time consuming!
Sadly, the Facebook page in question chose the black and white image of the primero and segunda to use on t-shirts they were printing and selling in celebration of November 19th 2015.
They did not ask, and our business name was taken off the image and mentioned nowhere on the t-shirts or in any of the Facebook posts: we would have gained no exposure or marketing from the t-shirts. At first, they refused to take the images down, seemed to find our concerns amusing, and continued to share the photos of the t-shirts despite our requests to take them down.
This is a page, that up until this time, I had considered supporters of Warasa. They had about a year or more ago, asked if they could share some of our photos on their page if they credited us, and we gave permission. They claimed that they did not know the image belonged to us. Now even if that were true, it is no defense. It is common knowledge that you can’t simply use a design without first checking who it belongs to, and asking permission.
For those that are not aware: Copyright is automatic – you do not have to register it.
In the end, the page in question did the honourable thing and did as we requested from the start, which was to:
- Issue a public apology for using our design without permission on their FB page
- Remove all photos that include our design/products that use our design
- Cease production and distribution/sale of all tshirts and other merchandise that include our design
- Advise everyone that already received a tshirt that it is not their design, but is in fact that of Warasa Garifuna Drum School
Quite a few professional photographers also messaged me to tell me their photos had also been used by the page, with their name/watermark on the bottom of it removed and replaced by the page’s own logo/watermark. So it seems indeed they didn’t understand the concept of artistic intellectual property. I think this was a harsh and upsetting lesson for both parties.
For the small number of people who are trying to make this somehow about me not being a born Belizean and/or not being Garifuna, then you have clearly never met me. Garifuna drums and music belong to the Garinagu people. But this particular image of Garifuna drums belongs to Warasa, the same way that PG town belongs to all its residents, but a photo of PG town belongs to the photographer.
Thank you as always for your support…