Stakeholders fight music pirates

The Officer in charge of Enforcement at the Copyright Office, Kumi Atiemo says Copyright Law, Act 690 demands that permission is sought from originators of music, and other creative works before their works are used.

He said those in the music industry and producers needed to unite, and support Copyright Office to enforce the law.

Mr. Atiemo said this at the sensitization workshop of Record Producers and Music Publishers Association of Ghana (REPPAGH), at Abrantie Spot in Accra.

Mr. Atiemo said young men who downloaded all forms of music on computers and reproduced them on CDs without permission of the originators were infringing on the rights of the musicians.

The Chairman of Ghana Musicians Rights Organization (GAMRO), Carlos Sakyi said musicians were talented persons who could benefit fully from their works if the Copyright Law was implemented effectively. He said all over the world it was musicians who contributed the largest portions of their nation’s revenue or Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The President of REPPAGH, Dick Essilfie-Bondzie and his Vice President Kwasi Adjapong stressed that the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund established by DANIDA, USAID and European Commission would support REPPAGH and Association of Music Rights Owners (AMRO), to avoid pirating of their works. During question time participants of the workshop were assured that if pirates were reported to the GAMRO taskforce they would get the offenders arrested and punished.

When this was done, musicians’ monies which have found their way into wrong pockets would come back to them.