IF there is one thing Jamaica Reggae Industry Association’s (JaRIA’s) board member Junior Lincoln hopes to change is the

lack of respect shown to artists and songwriters.

Junior Lincoln

“A lot of music that we are hearing now, 90 per cent of those artists are not benefiting from it,” he told Splash.

Lincoln noted that sound systems play at various public entertainment spots and the writers and artists are not paid anything for it.

“The law is too loose where this is concerned,” said Lincoln, adding that had it been a different scenario where a man walked into a supermarket robbed it, he would be severely punished.

“It’s the same robbery. They are robbing copyright owners,” he said.

“The law is not enforced, so those breaching the copyright laws continue to do so without fear of being punished. Every now and then police do a token seize, sometimes perpetrators are fined. But then it’s again placed on the backburner,” he said.