The Bahamian government has insisted that it is "committed" to upholding international copyright law as the US authorities continue their investigation of Cable Bahamas, which is accused of illegally broadcasting content belonging to US cable television channel HBO.
Government representatives from the Bahamas and the United States met on August 5 in an attempt to resolve long-standing copyright issues and to review the US Trade Representative Office’s 2009 "Special 301" Report on the adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection by US trading partners.
According to this year’s Special 301 Report, as part of its bi-annual review of the operation of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act, the US government is to review the IPR practices of beneficiaries, including the Bahamas, to assess compliance with the preference program’s eligibility criteria, which include the extent to which a country prohibits its nationals from broadcasting US copyrighted materials without permission.
Despite the fact that Cable Bahamas appears to have paid for television shows belonging to US cable TV companies, it has done so without establishing service agreements to re-broadcast such content and it came under the regulatory microscope in the both the Bahamas and the US last year.
Following the August 5 meeting, which also included members of the film and television industry, Joshua Sears, Director General of the Bahamas Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asserted that: "The Bahamas is committed to copyright protection."
“We reaffirmed our long-standing commitment to extend and enhance our efforts which continue to yield extremely beneficial results to our respective countries,” he stated.
Sears added that a “comprehensive review” of all domestic copyright legislation is being undertaken by the Bahamian government to ensure that the jurisdiction’s laws are compliant with all its World Trade Organization obligations.
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