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April 26, was World Intellectual Property Day. Delivering his message on the occasion, Wipo Director General, Francis Gurry declared that, ‘it was a day to celebrate the contribution that intellectual property makes to innovation and cultural creation – and the immense good that these two social phenomena bring to the world’.
This year the theme of World IP Day was visionary innovators – people whose innovations transform our lives. Their impact is enormous. They can, at times, change the way society operates. He reiterated that, ‘it was an opportunity to create greater understanding about the role of intellectual property as a balancing mechanism between the competing interests which surround innovation and cultural creation: the interests of the individual creator and those of society; the interests of the producer and those of the consumer; the interest in encouraging innovation and creation, and the interest in sharing the benefits that derive from them’.
It need not be reiterated therefore, how very important it is for the world’s nations to arrive at a consensus on issues that need to be resolved, while keeping the objective of the greater good of society well within their sights. In India the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks organized a programme to celebrate World Intellectual Property Day to spread awareness of intellectual property rights (IPR).
Interestingly, on April 23, which was World Book and Copyright Day, one heard laments of every new generation progressively losing the book reading habit, but luckily for us in the music industry, the reverse is true where music is concerned. People continue to have an insatiable desire for music irrespective of genre. Yet we too have our perennial lament - piracy, which still ceaselessly bogs our tracks.
The Sunburn Summer Fest 2012 burnt Mumbaikars for three days over the weekend last month and Percept plan to take it to Delhi later this year. Going by reports Sunburn’s Mumbai outing was a fairly successful one and that there is enough of an audience for every type of music. But it also sets you thinking as to which of the factors is galvanizing the crowds - the carnival like atmosphere, youngsters’ desire to party like there’s no tomorrow or the whether it is really the music. We do hope it is the music.
Indian Music Talks has been evolving and we will soon be launching live video interviews of your favourite artists and music industry professionals, besides a music channel featuring chart topping music. We hope these features will make indianmusictalks.com an even more involving experience.
Lastly we mourn the sad demise of Jim Marshall of Marshall Amplifiers, who passed away at the age of 88. Rock music and musicians owe a lot to the ubiquitous Marshall amplifiers for the sound of their guitar driven music, which captured the ears and minds of generations. Adieu Jim Marshall, may your soul rest in peace.
Summer is here and its vacation time so we wish all our viewers a very musical summer holidays.