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Navajo Nation Piracy Legislation

By Shonie De La Rosa

This week October 19-23, 2009 the Navajo Nation Council will be holding their fall session. A key item on the agenda is:

Legislation 0282-09: Relating to Economic Development, Public Safety; Enacting the Navajo Nation Unauthorized Recording Act of 2009; Enacting 17 N.N.C. §§601-608. Sponsor: Edmund Yazzie

This legislation is a very important item to artists and business people everywhere. It pertains to DVD/CD piracy on the Navajo Nation. We all have seen people selling illegal copies of DVDs and CDs at our local flea markets and roadsides across Navajo land. Many of them sell the latest Hollywood blockbusters and the latest in popular music. Many of these people also sell local independent artists works as well.

These people have illegally profited off of our work for years and it’s time to finally put an end to it.

With that said, I would like to encourage everyone to attend the Navajo Nation Fall Council Session in Window Rock, AZ and show your support on this legislation. Educate our delegates on piracy and let them know how you feel about the issue of and how it affects you as an artist and business person.

Last year we created a documentary titled “Pirates of the Navajo Nation”. We took our cameras into the local flea markets and confronted the people selling pirated DVDs and CDs. Needless to say, they we not too happy about the cameras being there. We also interviewed various independent artists about piracy and how it affects them. The documentary was then give to each delegate on the Navajo Nation Council to educate them on piracy. You can view this documentary on You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h8bK4ln9JI

I will be in attendance tomorrow Wednesday October 21 at the Council Sessions showing my support and lobbying the council about the piracy legislation. I hope to see many of you there supporting this legislation.

Steven A. Chin is reznet's managing editor. A former new media specialist at the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and former reporter at the San Francisco Examiner, Chin is principal of MKmedia, a web development consulting firm.