When someone takes your song

Start with a letter, the day you find it

It costs nothing, it often works, and it becomes evidence if it does not.

SAY WHO OWNS THE RIGHT

you, by name, and what you made.

DESCRIBE THE USE EXACTLY

the work, what was done with it, and where: the URL, the platform, the station, the venue, the date.

DEMAND THAT IT STOP, and give a short deadline.

SAY WHAT YOU WANT

takedown, credit, payment, or all three.

KEEP A COPY, and keep the evidence you gathered before you sent it. Screenshots, recordings, dates. Get them BEFORE you write, because the first thing many people do is delete.

What the ordinance actually lets you demand

ARTICLE 28 is the strong one: you can demand that copies published or reproduced in breach of your right be HANDED OVER INTO YOUR OWNERSHIP, or that they be DESTROYED OR RENDERED UNUSABLE. That reaches physical stock and it reaches the files.

It has limits — it does not reach buildings, land, or registered property like ships and aircraft. In a music dispute that carve-out will rarely matter to you.

ARTICLE 25 gives you the alteration and credit right, and it is the one most worth using: it is what gets your name put back on a work, and it survives even if you sold the copyright.

🔴 What it actually costs the other person — the real numbers

The ordinance's original guilder amounts were replaced in 2011, when the new criminal code came in. These are the figures in force now.

ARTICLE 31

deliberate infringement. Second-category fine: a CEILING of Cg 5,000, roughly US$2,800.

ARTICLE 32

dealing in infringing copies. Same ceiling.

ARTICLE 34

altering a work, its title, or the credit on it. Same ceiling.

ARTICLE 35

showing somebody's portrait without authority. First category, Cg 500.

ARTICLE 37

putting a FALSE NAME OR MARK on a work. This is what passing somebody else's song off as your own looks like, and it is the serious one: EIGHT DAYS TO TWO YEARS' IMPRISONMENT, or the fine.

Two things to understand about those numbers. They are CEILINGS, not tariffs — a judge can impose far less. And they have not been indexed since 2011: this island indexes wages and tax bands, but not criminal fines, so in real terms they have quietly lost about a third of their bite. The amounts read the same in Caribbean guilders as in the old ANG, because references in existing law convert one-for-one.

The four routes, in the order worth trying them

1. THE LETTER. Free, fast, and frequently enough. Most people stop when a real one arrives.
2. TALK, OR BRING IN SOMEBODY NEUTRAL. Mediation or an agreed arbitrator only works if everyone wants it — but in a scene this size you will meet this person again, and a deal you both signed beats a judgment you have to enforce.
3. THE CIVIL COURT IN CURAÇAO. You can ask for the use to stop AND for damages, and your signed splits and dated proof are what make the case. It is slow and it costs money. If you win, you will need a bailiff to actually enforce it.
4. A CRIMINAL COMPLAINT. Available — infringement is an offence — but understand what you are buying: a fine capped at Cg 5,000, an investigation that takes a long time, and the use very possibly continuing throughout. Article 37 is the exception, because prison is on the table.

What actually decides these cases

Not how obvious the theft was. What is written down.

In the 2022 sampling case the person whose voice was taken WON the legal argument — he was a co-author, and in principle he could have blocked the release. The court then refused to let him, because allowing every contributor a veto over jointly-made work would be unworkable. He received a credit and nothing else, and the court said plainly that working out a fair percentage after the fact was not straightforward.

• Auteursverordening 1913 — Curaçao's own register Articles 25, 28, 31–37 are the ones on this page.
• BIP Curaçao Dated proof of authorship, before you need it.
• The 2022 sampling judgment (ECLI:NL:OGEAC:2022:154) Won the argument, got a credit. Read it before you rely on being right.