TONO's administration has special rules for copyright to joik. “An important culturally dependent aspect of Sami tradition,” says membership manager, Jan Espen Storo.
/ 04/02/2022 / Kristian DugstadCopyright protects everyone who creates musical works and other intellectual property, and is the basis for TONO's activities.
The right to own your own intellectual property has been fought for for centuries, and TONO and other copyright organizations continue to fight to ensure that your rights are not diluted, every single day.
In a very special case, however, there are considerations that make it necessary to deviate from the basic principle because it is not directly transferable to Sami cultural expression and tradition.
– In Sami cultural tradition, the joik is central, but a joik is something different and more than a song, says TONO membership manager, Jan Espen Storo.
It is necessary to adapt this basic principle to the Sami yoik tradition, which follows the intangible legal system that originates from the Sami's own understanding of what yoik is and has always been.
– The fact that TONO's administration facilitates joik means that the Sami's own legal oral administration meets understanding, this is a very important milestone for the future existence of joik, says Karen Anne Buljo, chairwoman of Juoigiid Searvi, the Joikers' Association.
The yoik can be an aural representation of an object or a person. In that case, it is said that the yoik is not about the person, but that the person is joking.
– In Sami tradition, such personal yoiks belong to the yoiked, not the one who sings. composed The yoik. This is therefore different from copyright in general, says Storo.
A person joik is composed for a special person with their own unique character, which explains why people are named after musical names. Some people get their first musical name as a baby in the womb. The Sami people did this because the child should be able to grow strong in the large family systems.
– We can simply say that the personal joiks are personal identification numbers that the Sami community has great respect for and they are very concerned that no one misuses each other's personal joiks. Other types of joiks such as animals and place names are common property, but those joiks have collective cultural significance, for example for teaching joik. It is important for Sami culture to have joiks on the different platforms, says Buljo.
In TONO's administration, it is therefore arranged that personal yoiks can be registered with the yoiker as the rights holder, under three conditions:
This special rule is used to a relatively small extent, but is nevertheless an important protection of tradition.
– As Norway's only management company for copyright in musical works, it is important to us that our management takes into account this special and culture-dependent aspect of the Sami yoik tradition, concludes Membership Manager Jan Espen Storo.
