I try to eat healthy but it seems the best things in life are not free and are more for the wealthy. So, you can imagine my chagrin when a poor chap like me buys expensive things and get substitutes. Buying leather and getting leatherette or faux. Buying Juice and getting drinks. It is akin to passing off a harlot as a lady.
Here is what happened. I went into a reputable supermarket in Upper St. Andrew, Jamaica. I bought a bottle of 100% juice made by a reputable juice company. Needless to mention, the brand also had a reputation for high price. Imagine my surprise when I realized that I was sold mixed drinks as 100% juice. Are you surprised that I was surprised? Don’t laugh. Chances are you got shafted too.



Fooling some people sometimesBy the way, did I tell you which brand product it was that I bought in a reputable supermarket in a reputable area in upper St. Andrew Jamaica and also in Walmart and in Publix in USA. It is Mott’s: 100% Apple Juice.
Seriously now, who does that? It is more like, who doesn’t do that. A growing number of food and drink companies are labeling their products “all natural” or "100% juice" to attract health-concerned customers in order to improve their bottom line and get in the black. Do you feel deceived though?
Let me quickly share a legal packaging requirement with you: Ingredients for a product should be listed in descending order with the ingredient that is the most, in terms of volume, weight and size, being listed first. Simply put, put the most first.  If water is listed first it means that water is the majority of the content. In a bottle of a 100% apple juice, the only ingredient to be listed is apple juice.
Let’s look at it this way: if Mott's pour 100% apple juice in the bottle to say a ¼ full and then pour in water for the other ¾, it would not have lied. The bottle does contain 100% juice, albeit, the entire content of the bottle is not 100% juice. This should cover all legal requirements? Right?  Tricks in trade and mischievous in business. Figures don't lie but liars can figure. Sigh. False or misleading? Well. Hmmm.

Of course, there are some Mott’s drinks that are more juice than some but none is 100% juice. As mentioned, many other drinks company are also passing off mixed drinks as Juices. See photo.


Guilty as charged.Here is the facts of the “real news”. In 2011, Naked Juice was forced to retract their claim that their Naked juice was "100% fruit" and "all natural." The juice company was actually including ascorbic acid (vitamin c) and synthetic sources of fiber in its beverages — proving that "all natural" and #100% juice can be fairly meaningless buzzwords.   The complaint points out that the “front-of-package promises that the product is ‘ALL NATURAL’ and ‘100% JUICE.’ (Sounds familiar?)
It was held by the Court that a reasonable consumer would not assume that defendants were being deceptive and would not know to read the very-fine-print ingredient label.



Facing the musicAs Albert Einstein once said, The world is a dangerous place; not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
I must agree, there have been changes in the ways that businesses operate today and we are and should be thankful for the Fair Trade Commissions and other legislation. However, it is hard to accept a bottle of ¼ juice and ¾ water being sold as a bottle of 100% juice.
If Pepsi was forced to change their labels and advertising for their Naked Juice, this precedent could and should be applied to other companies that are passing off mixed drinks as 100% juice. Just change the label.... and the price. 
You know what they also taught in college. The customer is king and is always right. Fortunately, I was going through my recurring moments of truancy and had missed class that day so I didn’t learned it. I am glad I didn’t. Which King? Consumers are vagabonds.
If consumers are vagabonds, what are big businesses that exploit vagabonds? There is no winner.
CONCLUSION​As you have seen, reputable organizations  do tell "lies" and call it advertisement and marketing. That prompted this blong as I am very uncomfortable of big business or people taking advantage of the poor and meek, because I am poor. I also detest the idea of so call advertisers making false or misleading claims and calling it marketing as I am a chartered marketer.
In fact, marketers are sworn to a strict code of ethics that prohibit them from lying and making false claims.  We embrace the values of Honesty, Integrity and Trust (HIT). We become substandard and unworthy to be called marketers if we do deceptive practices.
For the fun of it, put the first letter in substandard (S) in front of the elements of good value (HIT) and you will find out the messy position you can be in if you lie.
It is true that figures don't lie but liars can figure and it is easy to deceive but there is no real winner. Indeed, in 1983, I had a book of my poems published titled "VIEW" and one of the poems in it is called SOUL FREE. One verse goes like this:
If 6 was the same as 9, we would not need to choose.                                                              You may trick me and win, when you trick love you lose.
You may read the full poem in my blog called " Slices of Love": Simply click "Slices of love".

COPYRIGHT DEFINITIONFor the records, copyright and publishing is not as developed in Jamaica as is in the United States and getting the nuts and bolt of it can be very challenging as stated. Nevertheless, it is encouraging to note that with the advent of the updated Copyright Act of 1993, and upcoming amendments, organizations such as Jamaica Association of Composers and Authors and Publishers (JACAP), Jamaica Music Society (JAMMS) and Jamaica Copyright Licensing Agent (JAMCOPY) are helping to regulate and cut a clear pathway in the intellectual property arena.
Basically, under the law (Jamaica and U.S.), copyright begins automatically once a piece of music is created then documented or recorded, for example, on video, tape or CD or simply written down in notation of a score sheet. WordFoodMusic CEO puts it nicely, “Once it is affix, you are in the mix. No registration is necessary to own what you create. However, proving that you own what you had made is another matter”.
Both the Jamaican Copyright Act 1988/1993 and the U.S. Copyright Law, amended December 2011, put copyright as a protection for original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. It allows an original work to be considered a property that is owned by somebody, whether published or unpublished.
Having no copyright can be a wrong copy. Importantly, even if you see your friends or other artistes using other people’s work without permission, it is illegal and you should not, according to the Bible, “follow a multitude to do wrong”. This is still true even though you may see some producers, loosely, putting the words “cover version” or “adapted” on their cover records to show a form of respect. The reality is that this is still an infringement as any form of unauthorized use of copyright material is a violation of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights.

By the way, the symbol for copyright is © although it may vary in some jurisdiction.


Copyright is big business and the copyright acts of Jamaica and U.S. afford several important rights that can earn income for the writer, composer and producer of music. The main rights are Public Performing Right, Reproduction Right, Mechanical Right, and Synchronization Right.

1. Public Performing Right is the exclusive right of the copyright owner to authorize the performance or transmission of the work in public: the right to decide how and when it should be played. When you buy any Aneil’s debut single, “Let Me Be” or download the MP3, Aneil, the copyright owner, through her agency WordFoodMusic, gives you permission to ONLY play the song for yourself, close friends and family. You do not own the song.

So, if you wish to play Aneil - “Let Me Be” to a wider group of people, for example at a Fish Fry on the beach, it is classed as a public performance and you must first seek permission (licence) from Aneil or her agent, before you do so. JACAP and JAMMS are responsible for this in Jamaica while ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC are responsible for the USA.

1. Reproduction Right is the exclusive right of the copyright owner, to authorize the reproduction of a musical work as in a record, cassette or CD.
2. Mechanical Right is the right to authorize the reproduction and distribution of a specific composition at an agreed upon fee per unit manufactured and sold. In Jamaica this is done by JACAP and JAMMS while Harry Fox Agency is the most popular in the U.S.
3. Synchronization Right is the exclusive right to synchronize the musical composition in timed relation with audio-visual images on film or videotape.

Please note that even if you are covering a song to give away for free as promotional material, the copyright owner must grant you a licence before reproduction. In the U.S the going licensing rate is $0.091 (9.1 cents) per unit for songs that are five minutes and under in length or $0.0175 (1.75 cents) per minute or fraction thereof, per unit for songs that are over five minutes in length. Outside of the U.S., the royalty rate is typically 8%-10% of the list price.

Currently, in Jamaica, copyright generally lasts for a period of 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the author dies. In the U.S. it is 70 years after the composer’s death.
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1. (Poor man’s Copyright). Send a copy of the work to yourself by registered mail, via the post office, leaving the envelope unopened and stored in safe place together with receipt from the post office
2. Deposit a copy of the work(s) to the National Library of Jamaica. Also note that it is a requirement under the Legal Deposits Act, that a copy of all library matter published in Jamaica ,including books, CDs, DVDs, must be deposited with the National Library of Jamaica for archival and historical purposes. This also provides a public record supporting an author’s claim of copyright

1. Deposit a copy of the song(s) with an Attorney-at-law (you may be required to pay legal fees.
2. The U.S. Copyright Act allows for a formal registration and protection of creators’ rights (birth certificate). This is done by registering the work with the US Copyright Office. To do so simply visit copyright.gov and preferably, register online. Online registration is faster and cheaper. The online fee for a single song owned by the writer is $35 while all other online application fee is $55. To register using printed forms and offline is $85. The application process takes up to 8 months if done via e-Filing and up to 13 months if done via Paper Form offline. Similar to Jamaica, a copy of the registered work is to be deposited with the Library of Congress.

Please note: Jamaicans may register their songs with the US Copyright Office even though the song was produced and published in Jamaica.