by TRACY MOORE

IF YOU HAVE a television in your shop or bar televising Cricket World Cup (CWC) matches without first obtaining a licence to do so, you're violating the Caribbean Media Corporation's (CMC) rights.

That's the word from the Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Inc (COSCAP), which is acting as agents for the CMC, which has the exclusive rights for public broadcasts.

"Public places, whether or not there is an admission fee, need to have a licence to show cricket on television," warned Erica Smith, COSCAP's chief executive officer yesterday.

"Wherever the set-up, whether it is an office, hotel, restaurant or bar, as long as it is outside of your home, and it is a public place, it doesn't matter if there is an admission cost, and it doesn't matter where the feed comes from, whether television or satellite, whether it is a clean feed or dirty feed, they need to get permission from COSCAP," Smith said.

Licences, she added, would be issued based on the size of the venue and its viewing audience but not on admission fees.

She also cautioned that COSCAP would be policing venues to ensure there would be no infringement of CMC's trademark rights.

Michael White, CMC's commercial and new business development manager, confirmed that licences would be necessary for all publicly viewed matches, adding that he was "optimistic" people would respect CMC's rights.

While several of the larger bars yesterday told the SATURDAY SUN they were aware of the requirements and had licences for public viewing of the matches, a number of smaller ones weren't.

"No one informed me," was the reaction from several small business bar owners in The City who were unaware they had to obtain a licence for public broadcasts of the ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) matches carried on the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

Rumours

"I had heard rumours, but no one told me anything. No one from ICC, no one from CWC, no one came and told me. It's Channel 8 ... Channel 8 is a local channel. When you turn on your TV that's the local channel, so what am I supposed to do? Turn off the TV?" queried one bar owner who requested anonymity.

Another said it was another way to take away money from the "small man".

"I wasn't aware of anything so, but that is bare crap. I am not getting no licence so they would have to charge me because I am not turning off my TV. . . . They just trying to stop us from making money," she said, also requesting anonymity.