– –
Ghanaian music star Fuse ODG has revealed that his legal team is in touch with the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) for using his video without his notice.
Ghana Tourism Authorism has been in the news for breach of copyright for using the music of Kirani Ayat without his consent.
READ ALSO: It’s always difficult to decide on which of my recorded songs to release – Gyakie
Fuse ODG and his team have released a statement revealing that although he gave out some work to the government to use in the past. He mentioned his song titled “Bra Fie” ft Damian Marley which was used as the theme song for the Year of Return.
– –
Fuse ODG sympathized with Ayat over his concerns raised about his song being used by the government without his consent.
Read the full statement by the record label of Fuse ODG, New African:
– –
As a Company, we feel that the last few days have exposed an issue in Ghana that goes beyond the Office of the President, Ghana: The lack of respect and understanding of intellectual property.
We have sanctioned works in the past for Government use, most notably, our 2018 record, “Bra Fie” featuring Damian Marley, which was used as the theme song for the ‘Year of Return; which we launched via our TINA Festival alongside the President of Ghana.
However, no such process was observed in relation to the recent video in question regarding our record “New African Girl”.
We sympathize with Kirani Ayat. As creative persons, we sacrifice a lot to be able to put together a song, let alone a whole video with high-quality production value.
As a Company, we have stayed true to our own mission – investing hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote Ghana over the years, which we will continue to do.
Clearly, mistakes have been made by the Government in this situation, but hopefully, they can take corrective action to compensate accordingly.
READ ALSO: The response I get from the fans during my shows makes me excited – Gyakie
Going forward, the solution must be to invest in more education around intellectual property.
This is something the Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture can do both internally and for the creative sector as a whole. Ghana has always been an influential voice in music globally, and a lot more can be done to support artists from an early stage.
In the meantime, our legal team is in discussion with the Ministry and their legal team in order to resolve this issue.
Source: www.ghbase.com
– –