When we spoke to the Prime Minister two days ago he expressed an interesting view on a raging controversy. He didn't seem to have much regard for what engineer rogue Matus says is his intellectual property - which are the designs and plans for the Belcan Bridge. Matus claims a Lebanese firm stole it - but the PM sees it differently. And Briceno's view contrasts sharply with his MIDH Minister. We looked at both:
Roque Matus, M&M Engineering
"What we did is we opened the documents, right, and we noticed that what they did is they took our drawings, our design and they just cut and paste it, in this drawing with somebody else di claim title to the design."
Jules Vasquez
"So you're accusing them of open...."
Roque Matus, M&M Engineering
"Yes, open theft, plagiarism."
That was Roque Matus's claim on October 3rd, but almost four weeks later - the PM was not moved. He says government paid for that design and can do as it wishes:
October 27
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well, I don't understand. If I pay you to do a job for me to do my, my plans for my house, that's my plan is not yours. And I think I feel that I can do as I wish. But maybe these intellectuals look differently, and that's up to them."
Well, not the intellectuals - his own Minister Of Infrastructure Development who is an architect:
October 06
Julius Espat, Minister - MIDH
"But if you alter somebody's product and use the same product, then at least you have to acknowledge who the author is or who the designer is."
Jules Vasquez
"Well, the government paid M&M or his contracting agent for this design and it then becomes theirs, they can do with it as they wish."
Julius Espat, Minister - MIDH
"The government of Belize owns the design, because the government of Belize paid for it. But that does not mean somebody can take that design and put their logo and their stamp and claim that they were the designers."
"If they would only have left under the title block "Design by M&M engineering" and and and and and placed their logo as the new designers that would have been fine."
"Let's suppose I design a building, and you buy that design from me and then you have another architect submit that same building but then you totally erase me from the concept, then that is wrong."
Belize's leading specialist on intellectual property agrees:
Jules Vasquez
"As the city council has stated: There is no copyright on intellectual property for engineering designs you've sold to the government."
October 09
Marissa Longsworth, Intellectual Property Expert
"Copyright is automatic, so it's not granted by any one person. So the minute that an architect draws, the copyright is vested in that architect."
Jules Vasquez
"It's implicit."
Marissa Longsworth, Intellectual Property Expert
"It is implicit. It's automatic by default, in the act of creation you are a copyright owner as a result. So because you are implicitly a copyright owner, you automatically have your moral and your economic rights."
And it is left to be seen if in this case it is might that will make right.
For the record we note that Turba Consultants position is that it did not "knowingly breached Belize Copyright Laws or knowingly stole the Initial Design." They say they ran their own calculations, basing it on the Initial Design and they said that it has been "wrongly concluded" by some "that Turba's bridge design was the product of intentional wrongdoing."
