BASSTERRE, St. Kitts – SOMETIME next week, a panel will be convened to assess and deliberate on a report of plagiarism of which a contestant in the Sugar Mas 45 Soca Monarch Competition has been accused.
Chairman of the Carnival Committee Noah Mills, in an interview with SKNVibes, explained that about three weeks ago he was personally given some information and about a week and a half ago video evidence was produced that spoke to the alleged plagiarism.
“Article Six, as developed by the National Carnival Committee, was designed primarily to educate and protect not only the artistes but the Carnival Committee and, by extension, the Government.
“And since the introduction, the information has been directed to the Carnival Committee. And although there has been no formal complaint, other Soca artistes have indeed informed us that there is an artiste in the Soca fraternity who has allegedly used the melody or some portion of lyrics from another regional Soca artiste.”
Mills told SKNVibes that not only is the panel to review this particular song, but it would also be reviewing all material submitted by other Soca artistes.
“The investigation is still ongoing. The panel that is supposed to review for intellectual property rights violation has not met as yet, it should be meeting shortly. So we are not in a position to say that the Carnival Committee has made any decision on the issue as yet and we await the panel to review whatever songs are sent in by all of the artistes who would be participating.”
The Chairman expressed that the purpose of Article Six is not to disqualify any individual who would have offended it, but rather, if indeed this particular artiste if found to be in violation of that article, he or she would be given an opportunity to make the necessary adjustments to their piece and make it competition-ready.
Article Six, which forms part of a contractual agreement drafted by the Carnival Committee, is designed to protect artistes and the Committee by requesting that artistes submit their material to a panel for review. This panel’s purpose is to ensure – as much as it possibly can – that no plagiarism of lyrics etc. are reproduced from other artistes.
