Entertainers need more help with securing estates
Published:Saturday | March 10, 2018 | 12:00 AM
Culture Executive Maxine Isis Stowe says the Administrator General's Department (AGD) does not have the capacity to handle the estates of entertainers, especially where it concerns the management of the intellectual property and businesses that many of Jamaica's musicians have left behind.
"With the foundation of our music and the contributors dying without proper testamentary devices to administrate the business assets, that is another door through which our rights are being lost... or does not benefit the generations," Stowe told The Gleaner.
Stowe says the problem is that the asset is not in hand, especially in music.
"You find that entertainers grapple with their value or the intangibles, that is the legacy or brand, which often times, the family will benefit more from," she said.
Her experiences with getting the business affairs of her late husband, Lincoln 'Sugar' Minott, and Clement Coxsone Dodd (her uncle) in order has been a challenge.
"None of them thought of doing a will, maybe because of superstition," Stowe said, "But even with the will Uncle Clement prepared, it was left so contested, because it [was] not properly structured; it was like he did not have one."
She says even with organisations like Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes and Affiliates, the scope of information and database that exists will require more support.
"Investments should be made in expertise to assist the AGD to manage intellectual property rights," Stowe said.
"The music is a legacy for the people, and presently, there is not even a music museum to secure the future of it," she added.