Sri Lanka in desperate need of new entertainment laws

 Q: What areas specifically does Sri Lanka have to look at in terms of strengthening legislature?

A: One area where the laws are not sufficient is the entertainment field. There are a lot of loopholes that we don’t know in Sri Lanka. We only look at the Copyright Act which is not sufficient. We don’t have a developed set of laws for media and entertainment. We have only a few acts such as the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation Act, the TRC Act, the SLBC Act and the Copyright Act which is only a part of the Intellectual Property Act which is a very a massive act in other countries.

I have been doing some research on my own and found that in developing the entertainment industry we have to bring in the laws we see in the most developed countries. The most developed country when it comes to entertainment media is the USA. After about three years of research I published a book on media entertainment laws titled ‘Entertainment and Broadcasting Laws for Sri Lanka’, and in it I state that the entertainment industry is highly governed by contracts, labour laws and copyright laws. You can have laws but you have to have guidelines to guide the practical workings of the industry. 

For example, a film production has back-to-back contracts – actors’ contracts, directors’ contracts, technical services contracts – and it is the same for the music, television and media industries. So you can’t just hire an independent contractor with a normal contract and just cut and paste clauses to suit the situation. When you negotiate in other countries, three people are present – the attorney, the agent and the client. Countries like UK and Australia also have developed laws on this matter but I’ve always said that the laws in the US need to be looked at closely because they are strongest there.

Q: How will new entertainment laws help Sri Lanka and the industries involved?

A: It is for protection; the protection of the writers, artists, directors, producers, songwriters, singers, broadcasters etc. Whether you’re an artist, a businessman, a supplier or a technical worker, these laws will serve to protect your interests. The execution of contracts will guarantee their protection. 

Q: Why do you think this is such a pressing matter?

A: Our entertainment industry is quite healthy at the moment. You can see many foreign artists now coming to Sri Lanka and there are several foreign productions being undertaken in Sri Lanka as well. The problem is that our entertainment industry personnel as well as the businessmen are not used to using professional agreements and legal tie ups. That culture is missing. At the moment instead of looking at professional contracts in other countries, we are just cutting and pasting normal employment contracts when dealing with entertainment personnel.

Secondly, there are no laws to protect certain parties. Our guiding contracts are based on British law but the US has specific statutes that dictate how contracts should be guided. The Coogan Act for example protects child artists and their interests from the money they earn to how their contracts should be handled. Here, we don’t have forward-thinking laws instead we don’t allow child artists to be portrayed in commercial productions. That is ridiculous.

Our copyright laws are not strong enough either. The entertainment industry develops with the development of technology. Currently, everything is in the Cloud, as in a remote server. As you know, one of the problems with these remote servers is that it can be hacked. So we need to bring in laws that move with the developing technology. This will help us deal with issues like streaming, illegal downloading, piracy, sharing files, etc.

Social Media is another issue. We know that it cannot be regulated so there’s no point bringing in laws. But when your rights to privacy have been violated through social media we need laws to help protect you. The second part of my book, which I hope to release soon, will deal largely with the laws to privacy. We don’t have these laws imbedded.

So there needs to be laws to privacy brought in as well as laws to protect digital media communication such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the US which shutdown Napster.

Q: Are you working on trying to introduce these laws in Sri Lanka privately or are you working with any organisation?

A: The only organisations that appreciates my work the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the National Intellectual Property Organisation (NIPO). They use me as a resource to educate other people on the subject. I have done some presentations for WIPO and NIPO. I must say that with the limited budget they have, the current administration at NIPO is doing a lot to educate people.

Q: Why do you think there is so little interest in introducing new laws?

A: I think it’s because the lawyers who are practicing in this area are inundated with work and they have no time to research and try to bring in new laws. There are no institutions that can do research on law and submit proposals. The Ministry of Justice can possibly have an arm that does research on this but you will need full-time lawyers for it. Of course, you can’t expect lawyers to come on board with government salaries to do this. You will probably have to have a heavily funded project that can be operated under the ministry.

Q: What is your next step?

A: My book is about three years old now so I’m working on updating it. I want to touch upon several new areas in my next publication such as laws of privacy and how other countries are dealing with issues concerning social media. I will also suggest new laws that should be brought in with examples from other countries. I hope it can be used as a guide book.