By CARE

Copy right; Right to copy

by Soratha Chan

Monks in Angkor Wat. Picture: Sandra Bulling

I feel that I’ve just arrived in Germany a few days ago; however, it is nearly two months. I started my life here without any knowledge. I have to learn new things like I did when I was a child raised by my mother. But my mother is not here—she is in Cambodia. So I decided to explore this world by myself. I didn’t understand the bus and train system, culture, lifestyle and language. I was guided a lot by my friends and CARE colleagues. Now, I understood what my friend told me—“Enjoy your great adventure.” Two months in Bonn is not only for internship, but also for trying new things and making new friends. I really don’t know how to describe my feeling right now when talking about going back home.

Dilemma Business

Although two months are too short, I have found quite a bit of friends. Some of them are Cambodian, Chinese, Thai, French, and German. Not all of them know much about Cambodia. They curiously asked me about food, dating, film and music in Cambodia. I feel so ashamed when speaking about music in my country.

However, I feel proud of music in Cambodia, if I am talking about Khmer music and how it was thirty years ago. By then, we had our leading singers with our own melody. Then Mr. Sin Sisamuth and Ms. Ros Sereysothea are still the two popular singers although they passed away thirty years ago. Most of their song tell us about romantic love and lifestyle in the 1960s which can also be applied to Cambodia society in the present time.

Now, we have our own singers but those singers copy other melodies for their songs. I can hear melodies from England with Cambodian language. Most song composers complain that they can not earn much from their own work. It takes them a lot of time to compose a music, but they sell their music with lower price. Their music will be pirated only in few weeks after release. Those copies always sell in lower price than the master pieces. They said that copy right laws cannot help them at all. Some people even make a joke of the laws: It’s not copy right, but right to copy.

Nevertheless, it might be good for the public because they can get their favourite music a lot cheaper. It cost only 0.25 US dollar to buy a Video CD and it is available ubiquitously. I and other Cambodians cannot afford the price of the original Video CD which cost four US dollar per unit.

Can we follow Beethoven’s way?

I was so surprised to learn about how Ludwig van Beethoven dealt with his masterpiece when there were no copy right laws. He sold his music at a higher price and within different places. So, he did not care much about reproducing. I wish that Cambodian song composers and singers can survive with their works. I think they can sell their products at the price that matches with the standard living of Cambodians. Hence, they won’t worry about losing intellectual property. Maybe we will be able to compete with some other music production in Asia countries.

After I spent a week with DW radio and wrote articles about Cambodia, this is my last blog for CARE. I will go home this Friday. When you are reading my blog, I might be on the plane or in Cambodia with my family and friends. I have told you many things about my country—both good and bad thing—but I will fly with a lot of memories about Germany. It will take long time to tell about Germany to my parents, my brothers and sister and my friends. I hope I will see any of you in my country one day. There are many interesting things to visit in Cambodia such as the marvellous Angkor Temple, seaside in the southern Cambodia, natural resort in the northern Cambodia, national museum, the royal palace and many other resorts.

Oh! I am about to forget to tell you some Khmer words. Do you want to know? When you want to mean “thank you”, you can say “Or Kun”. Then, when you want to mean “good bye”, you can say “Chum Reab Lea”. Should you have any questions, you can post in the blog comment. I will check it very often.

See you! Best Wishes, Soratha Chan.

Tags: Angkor Wat, Asia, Cambodia, Journalism

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 10:30 and is filed under Projects Asia, Soratha Chan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.