Barbadian doctors are up in arms and say they may be removing all television sets and radios from their efforts as the Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (COSCAP) says it will be asking them to pay license fees to the organization. This is according to Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners President, Dr. Carlos Chase.
An angry Dr. Chase said that doctors are being targeted for almost everything in the recession and said that they are already facing a massive increase in insurance premiums, 35% of their business gone especially to local Government-run polyclinics and higher registration fees for medical practitioners.
However, Erica Smith, COSCAP’s Chief Executive Officer, Erica Smith told the Barbados Starcom Network News that is surprised at the reaction of BAMP citing their request as “normal procedure for all commercial places”. She also maintained that the fee was small, a mere US$45 (forty-five dollars).
“We’re victims of triple-whammy here. We’re taking issue of the huge annual subscription fee of 25 hundred dollars; then a massive 40 per cent increase in medical insurance fees up to a hundred thousand dollars a year…and then on top of that COSCAP wanting to have funds, when we’re seeing reduction in patients visiting doctors ,” said Chase.
Dr. Chase says that BAMP may have to seek legal advice on the letter that the Association received from BAMP on May 15th from COSCAP.
“We do not specifically target the doctors’ offices in a discriminatory manner …I don’t know what the specific objections of the doctors are…the tariff I think is very reasonable”, Smith told Starcom News.
Ms. Smith says COSCAP is acting according to the Copyright Act of Barbados and shops and supermarkets also have to pay a fee.
