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Mr. John Willy Rudolp, the Chairman of Norcode and Mr. Saemund Fiskvik, board member of Norcode, gave a general lecture to stakeholders on Copyright and Collective Management Societies, in the National Art Gallery on the 14th of March 2010.  It was a very comprehensive lecture, covering guiding principles, concepts, rights, economic benefit and implementation models.

The two gentlemen also held a directing meeting with stakeholder associations on the 15th of March 2010, during which, they put forward suggestions and commented on the draft legislation on Copyright, which is now with the Attorney General’s Office.

Norcode, a Norwegian based organization, has been giving assistance in establishing a Collective Management Society and Copyright Industry in the Maldives. Norcode was established 26 October 2007, by five collective management organizations: BONO, Gramo, Kopinor, Norwaco and TONO, with the objective to carry out international development work in the copyright field.

It was regrettable to note that most representatives of different associations, has had no prior access to the draft legislation that is going to be put forward to the Parliament.  There are two contribution reasons for this.  One, a standardized contact database has not been maintained and updated by the Government.  Two, it is possible that, most of the associations present were formed quite recently.  However, during the initial drafting, some select focus groups were consulted.

Very recently, UNDP has published a questionnaire aimed at the arts community, to facilitate compilation of such a database.

A high degree of uncertainty and unawareness still exists within the arts community.  It is believed that a lot more education and awareness programs are needed to educate on the benefits of protecting the intellectual rights, along with the transitions that has to take place, in how business is done, here in the Maldives.

The draft legislation is not thought to have much room for further changes, as it has to adhere to the minimal standards of the TRIPS convention.  However, Mr. Fiskvik, did note that, performers and writers may be disadvantaged, if implemented as it is.  Therefore, there still is time and room to make the draft legislation better.

The events were organized by Intellectual Property (IP) Office, at the Ministry of Economic Development, headed by Mr. Ahmed Mumthaz, who has been actively involved in creating awareness on intellectual rights and involved in its implementation process.

The prominent female vocalist Unoosha, has launched her website today.

The website seems to be twitter oriented for updates.  It also features her photos, videos, biography, a guestbook and a contact form.

Her brand presence on the web is also maintained at Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and on YouTube.

According to her website, Unoosha, born to musician parents, started singing at the age of six.  Her early platforms included the Inter-school Singing competitions.

Once she left school, she performed with Amazon Jade, and other leading artistes.  She is also a recording artist and her website claims more than one hundred songs recorded to her credit.

Currently, she has got together her own band and is gigging in the resort scene.  Her solo album is also expected soon.

UNDP is interested in compiling a contact base of artists of all forms and mediums in order to create a platform to assist and facilitate them to organise and express themselves on wider issues and concerns within the society through their art.

Attached is a questionnaire that we have developed for this purpose and we would appreciate it if you could forward it to any artists, writers, musicians, actors, photographers, bloggers, filmmakers or any other creative persons that you know or are working with.

Please contact me if you have any queries and thank you for your assistance.

Download Questionaire:  100223_undp_artist_questionaire.doc (36KB)

Best regards
Shaliny Jaufar
Programme Analyst – BTCNC
UNDP Maldives
Tel: +960 334 3268
Email: shaliny.jaufar [at] undp.org

You can stay in Male’ and still rock out on New Year’s Eve, as CountDown 2010 offers live music show at Olympus starting from 30^th December 2009.

CountDown 2010, which starts at 9 p.m., on 30 Dec 2009, and continues again on the next day at 8 p.m.

Also, buffet dinner will be available from the Olympus Café during the show on 31^st December 2009.

Featuring Bands include:

On 30th Dec 2009

• Qube
• BYT
• Odder Bee
• RedVex

On 31^st Dec 2009

• Brain Damage
• 3MA
• Agents of Orange
• 1 Knight Stand

Ticket Prices:

Ticket per Night:                     Mrf 30.00

Ticket for 2 Nights:                 Mrf 50.00

Ticket on 31^st with dinner:      Mrf 100.00

Make sure you don’t miss out on this event and see you there!

Have a nice countdown

A German journalist is looking for children (between 8 and 15 years of age), who are engaged in environmental activities, to be featured in a documentary.

This documentary will be about three such children, one each from the Maldives, South Korea and Germany.  Interested children must be directly engaged in environment related activities, such as tree planting or must be expressing their message via an art form (such as song writing).

Please contact henriette.bornkamm@fechnermedia.de from www.fechnermedia.de, for more information.

I hear people saying that “Old is gold”. I don’t really know what it means. I didn’t even think about it. Because It doesn’t make any sense to me, so i didn’t want waste my time thinking about it.

Nowadays we see many music bands in Maldives. The 3 neighbours are also a music band now. We see teenagers hanging out with guitars. Playing some good stuffs by Alexi Laiho, James Hetfield, Jimi Hendrix, Slash Hudson and goes on. But the question is, Is it worth to spend time on playing those stuffs?

I met a Musician, Who started playing mid 90s. He told me that, the kids who are playing music is nothing other then some shit, because they know all the guitar chords, but they cant even play their own 1 song! Whats the use of wasting time, playing music composed by others? and also he told me that, when they started playing music, they only know the guitar chord “E” but they have created their own stuffs. Really good music. I asked him who taught you music. He replied me. “Nobody. Music is something you create”.

Most of the band’s still play covers on shows. But there are few Maldivian Bands coming up with their own music, Bands like Sacred Legacy, Fasylive, 1984 etc.

I still like old Maldivian Bands. “Kushehnooney”, “Violet Addiction”, “Zero Degree Atoll”. Those are really legends. Yes! Old is gold.

I hate the program music in Maldives. I wish luck for Maldivian Musicians who are trying to create their own music.

“The Guitar Gig 2009” is the unique event organized by the Maldives Entertainment Co. Ltd. The main purpose of the event is to showcase the talented guitarists of the Maldives in a very unique and vibrant atmosphere. This event would be showcasing guitarist Anil, Xia and Shahyd who are of different genre for their unique style and talent while playing the guitar.

The three guitarists mentioned would be backed by a band of their choice and would be performing with their cover songs and their original material, some which had not being released to the general public. Some well known faces who have being in the music industry would also be featured with the bands during the event.

This show will be at “Olympus” from 9:00pm onwards till 00:00am on the Saturday 31st of October 2009. Tickets available @ Olympus. Ticket Price Mrf 75.00.

As the name defines, “The Guitar Gig” would be a musical extravaganza performed by one of the 3 most accomplished guitarists in town with their respective band. The event concept is that these three groups getting united and setting aside the differences among them to enjoy and applaud the live music performed by the youngsters in a disclosed. Maintenance of friendliness and brotherhood, unity & harmony is our goal.