Poor state of
composers due to failure to pay royalties
Copyright law to
be enforced from next month
Poor state of
composers due to failure to pay royalties
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 26 March
2001
The Copyright Society of Ghana
(COSGA) has attributed the deplorable state of Ghanaian music composers to the
failure of most producers and retailers to pay the actual royalties due
composers.
Mr. Joe Mensah, President of the
COSGA board, noted with regret that there were numerous producers, retailers
and users of the creative music products of composers who explore the
composers' works to enrich themselves and deliberately refuse to pay the
royalties due them.
Mr. Mensah made the observation at
a meeting of the board and members from the northern sector of the country in
Kumasi on Friday.
It was to create an avenue for the
board to brief the members on its plans, programmes and discuss their concerns
and seek collective solutions to them.
The board president announced that
in a more practical move to ensure that the right royalties are paid regularly
and on time to members, the board has decided to implement and collect
royalties under the "mechanical rights law" for composers as from
April 7 this year.
"Mechanical rights law"
is the permission and licence to make numerous copies of a composer's music or
creative work for sale upon payment of due royalties.
Mr. Mensah explained that even
though the mechanical rights law has been given recognition and legal backing
by PNDC law 110, the Copyright law of 1985, there has never been any payment
made under it to any composer in the country.
He reminded the public that the
banderole, that in the past was used to be affixed on cassettes to indicate its
genuiness has since last year been replaced with the COSGA hologram.
Mr. Mensah therefore urged
producers, retailers and music product wholesalers to affix COSGA holograms on
all their products to avoid any raids and seizure of their products and
possible arrest.
Mr. Faisal Helwani, a member of
the COSGA board, made it clear that radio stations have no right to just go in
to buy music cassettes or CD's and play them on the air without any
authorisation from the composer.
He dismissed the excuse, sometimes
given by some radio stations, that by using the music of a particular artist,
they were just helping in promoting that musicians business and urged them to
do the right thing.
GRi…/
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Copyright law to
be enforced from next month
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 26 March
2001
The Copyright Society of Ghana
(COSGA) will as from April 7, enforce the "Mechanical rights law,"
which gives it power to collect royalties due its members for the use of their
creative works.
Mr. Joe Mensah, President of the
COSGA Board, who announced this at a meeting of members in the northern sector
in Kumasi on Friday, said numerous producers, retailers and users of the
creative musical works only exploit the composers to enrich themselves.
Mr.Mensah said although the
mechanical rights law has been given recognition and legal backing by PNDC law
110, (Copyright law of 1985), there has never been any payment made under it to
any composer.
He reminded members of the public
that the "banderole," which was used to identify genuine cassettes on
the market has been replaced by the COSGA hologram.
Mr.Mensah urged producers,
retailers and music product wholesalers to affix COSGA holograms on all their
goods to avoid arrest.
Mr Faisal Helwani, a member of the
COSGA board, said radio stations have no right to just go in to buy music
cassettes or CD's and play them on the air without any authorisation from the
composer.
He even though the radio promotes
artistes by playing their music, they should pay royalties for using other people's creative works to promote
their stations.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com