Musician “Carlos Sakyi” has chided the government of Ghana for its inability to clampdown pirates at the entry point in the country. He said he has had the opportunity to ‘arrest’ a pirate. According to him, the [pirate] showed him documents of duties and receipts of money paid to the Customs to enable him enter the country with the pirated goods.
Delving more into the Copyright Laws and its inaccuracies in Ghana, he said under the Copyright Laws, one is allowed to bring something into the country for his or her personal use only and other than that, the things has to be scrutinized and the pirate arrested.
“Under Copyright Law, you can only bring in things for your personal use. So anything beyond a certain level has to go through a system. You must show that you have authority to exercise the right of a copyright owner. But these things come in and undermine our local things, destroy jobs and create unemployment,” he added.
Citing an instance to buttress his point raised above, he said “I bought a CD, I want to know what was on, it has about 80 different movies on it and it costs only GHC1.50,” this he said creates confusing between movie makers and the consumers. Because selling one local movie at GHC5.00 is seen as ripping off the consumer when he or she can actually purchase over 80 movies at just less than GHC1.00.
He was one of the speakers at the just ended 2011 edition of the MTN Ghana Music Awards Forum at the Alisa Hotel on Tuesday morning. In his presentation, he said, no music industry [Ghana] can survive without the intervention of the government.
“The music industry or any other creative industry cannot survive without the government’s intervention, without government’s playing its part, without the right legal environment being created,” he said.
“If the courts are not operating properly and you arrest pirates, what happens? The judge has no idea; the prosecutor doesn’t know the Copyright Law, what is going to be done? Nothing! So the piracy has become high revenue earning income business for pirates”
The owner of Galaxy Entertainment, a music and Production Company in Ghana and a strong campaigner for copyrights owners said this when he had his turn to talk about Copyright and Royalties, specifically in the Ghana Music Industry and in entertainment industry as a whole.
According to the ace keyboardist “Pirating is link to organized crime and terrorism. It’s one of the easiest ways of making money”. He therefore calls for the right framework to be put in place and protect the intellectual property of Ghanaians “We need to protect our intellectual property”.
He urged for the need for the various government agencies such as the Customs to be strengthened, to be educated, sensitized and let them understand that they are contributing to very negative things.
He ended with an advice to the government: “All we [creative industry] want from government is to create a conducive environment, create a proper legal environment, prosecution matter, institutions are very critical for survival, we need to make sure all these institutions play their parts, the minister of Trade and the Minister of Justice have to make sure our laws are right, the court [judiciary] has a role to play” Not forgetting the president of Ghana. Even the president of Ghana also has a major role to play”.
The Forum is organized annually as an important aspect of the Award Festival and it affords industry professionals a unique opportunity to channel some of the attention garnered by the Awards Festival to push specific agenda of the industry.
The theme for the 2011 MTN Ghana Music Awards Forum was “Help grow our Music – The Role of the State, Media, Financial Institutions, Artistes, Producers and Marketers” and it was divided into five segments which were addressed by personalities in the various sector of the creative industry. They segments include: [1] Copyright & Royalties, [2] Distribution, [3] Music Union (MUSIGA), [4] Marketing & Promotion and [5] Events.
Presents at the forum was government officials, musicians, industry professionals and the media such Theresa Ayoade of Charter House, the chairman of the National Media Commission, former ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire Kabral Blay Amihere, President of Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Diana Hopeson, Deputy Minister for Tourism, James Agyenim Boateng and Hon. Hanna Tetteh, the Minister of Trade and Industry who doubled at the Chairperson for the event.
Musicians like Samini, D-Black, Kwabena Kwabena, Borax, Richie, Amandzeba Nat Brew, Mary Ghansah, No Tribe and others were present. The MTN Ghana Music Awards is scheduled for Saturday April 9, 2011 at the Dome at the Conference Centre.
Story By Ebenezer Anangfio Jnr./GhanaCelebrities.Com/Ghana
I know this is sad but perhaps its time we look to China for dirction on this instead of looking to the west when it comes to copywrite laws. I see Mr. Sakyi’s view though, incompetence is never an excuse but perhaps those copywrite laws are outdated and being ignored by law professionals for a reason(compared to sensationalist crime headlines which will make mention of a judge or lawyer in the press, pirating does not bring such tabloid popularity).
Personally I am glad someone is speaking out on this topice. It’s about time. @kin, is China’s copyright laws more rigid than that of the ‘west’ why you are suggesting that Ghana looks to China on this issue? Wouldn’t it be prudent for Ghana to look within itself to see the needs that are there and work on such matters accordingly?
@kr China looked within it self and DOES not have any laws on pirating and copyrighting, that is why I think they had to right idea because in the west all attempts to shut down MUSIC free music sharing sites like Kazaa, Napster proved futile and now even movie and music companies don’t even bother to release to dvd or cd because they know pirating will go on….thats all i meant ….perhaps Venus Films and Galaxy Entertainment should start releasing thier films directly to thier fans because they know it is only a true fan that will pay(if the price is competitive enough rather than go to the guy carries pirated movieson his head selling it along the road-a lot of young guys from Niger or Chad do that in Tema especially)
@Kin, thx for the response. Let’s be clear in acknowledging that the freedom Ghanaians enjoy is not necessarily the same ‘freedom’ that is ‘enjoyed’ in China. Chinese governmental control is far-reaching hence the ‘need’ for copyright laws are not immediate. On the business aspect of the entertainment industry, the bulk of monies come at the front end. A released movie or music that can be easily pirated undermines the artistes and investers financial bottomline, thus the need for copyright laws. How sad it is that an artiste is not rewarded for his hard work because of piracy. Can we really call it ‘free music’ when the ppl who invested their money, energy and time do not profit from said? They are putting up a fight to retify the problem. A true fan, will not pay for something that is can be obtained freely. DVD and blu-ray (for movies) releases are done after they have cinemas/theaters runs. Direct release to fans is one way to go. On the other hand marketing thru structured release brings in high revenue. The truth is that it takes a lot, financially to put out a movie or music cd. Copyright laws protect people’s investments. I wonder how many chinese artistes have high returns on their investments. That would be interesting to know.
@kr I get you now. Which reminds me of a hard fact that musicians generate the most money from concert tours not cd, itunes or even pirated sales(I am not convinced that those selling pirated films and music make so much that compared to the artist the pirate is richer)
Just like film companies in Ghana should come together and find ways to release their films at film theaters, cause lets face it if you make it so exclusive that buzz about the film encourages fans to want to pay to go see it at Silverbird Theater or wte then hold off on releasing the film the masses, I think they stand to make a lot more money.
but i see your point about it not being fair to the filmmaker and artist.
thats very true, the revenue from gate proceeds derived from movie watchers at the silverbird is very high…. i went to the silverbird to watch a particular movie and for a week, i had to battle cos anytime i get der,the place is full and we’re talking abt 4 theatres can u imagine. have u heard Shirley crying over piracy??? no, cos she makes a lot of money from the movie showings….the DVDs dat come out later are just an icing on the cake for her….movie makers and music producers should come out with ways of deriving the full benefit from their ivestments.
Kin, I am in total agreement with you in the release of films in cinemas. They shld really consider this avenue. As for music, new artistes hv to rerly on sales before they are concert tour ready. It’s a hell of an industry and somebody is always out to beat the system.
Pirates put a dent in the fair market because they undercut the price of the retail sales. I guess it boils down to profit margin and for me it’s who invests the most shld capitalize on the highest return. How much do pirates invests? LOL. I wonder if they had to invest if they would take up the business of piracy. Haha
lolz
hi carlos you are always fighting against piracy,thats very good its rather unfortunate you dont get good people to back you.i remember you with the band OSU-I WILL COME AND JOIN YOU FIGHT THIS PIRACY OFF ,THE GOVERNMENT WILL NEVER HELP,THEY HAVE NEVER HELPED IN THE FIRST PLACE.BUT WE SHALL GET THERE,KEEP THE SPIRITS HIGH.
if u put your house in order, government will help…government can’t teach dem how to market their products or how to produce their products with gud security features dat’ll make it not impossible but dfficult for someone to re-produce…they have to come out with dese things. it’s only after that dey can fight for laws to fight this crime.if der are laws but the products are cheaply made, it’ll derail the purpose that the law is supposed to serve.it’s a gud thing he’s doin but he’s tacklin it from the wrong angle.
for me i think the 80movies on a cd thing is a way over exaggerated.dats not possible…the highest now is the 16-in-1 dvds we have around. that was just by the way.
to the issue, piracy is very difficult to crack down even in the west.i think 2years ago, hollywood movie houses came out wit high security rich DVDs for their movies.dey were supposed to launch the dvd wit a particular movie release. a wk before the outdoorig, the movie was made available online by a 12 year old who had cracked nd bypassed the security feature to copy and upload the movie. the whole outdooring was abandoned. with the advance in technology and the easy availablilty of tools for various tasks,crackin down on piracy is becoming a daunting task.
Carlos and his friends make so much noise abt dis issue yet dey don’t have any better solution to offer.dese are ppl who do not even use the cosga seccurity adhesive seal yet dey complain abt piracy and copyright.even if this seal is not 100percent, at least it reduces piracy by a margin. how can they fight for their rights when they are not united????
dey should first come together, work out modalities on how they’re goin to market their products. drum home the idea of getting the original CD,VCD or DVD into the general public…when u buy a Celine Dion original CD,u get here profile and sometimes the lyrics of the songs, you also get some bonus tracks….wht do we see here?? u buy a cd of 8 songs and u have an intro, 6 songs,instrumentals and an outro…..seriously who’ll buy dis especially when out of the 6songs, u get only one thats gud??????i’ll rather copy dat one gud track from a friend or download it from the net…quality is the hallmark of fighting piracy….if the original is the same as the imitation den why waste tym and money buyin the original….
to the movies,dats even a waste of tym…apart from the sparrows and venus, all the rest are crap..a standard movie should be 90mins or over…….a standard Ghanaian movie is 45 mins and it has 4parts. 45mins applies only to the first part cos the subsequent oes will be shorter snce they have repeat scenes of previous parts.is dis wht they want us to buy??..u have a scene where someone is to deliver a msg and dat drags on for like 5 mins with repeat dialogue.i’ll buy and own any Sparrow or Venus movie and i’ll gladly copy the rest which now has a standard part of 4……..put your house in order before u even start talkin abt government.
Politic in the music industry has allowed piracy to kill Ghanaian Music Industry. Go to every city and town in Ghana, the market is full with cheap inferior pirated music products.
Ghana has a powerful copyright act, Ghana Copyright Act 960. But because of politic in the music industry that promotes fighting and unnecessary finger pointing, the law has become like ‘a toothless dog’. The LI which will make this law effective has been delay since 2005 because some musician and music producers have been petitioning against the LI. They demand sections of the Act dealing with folkloric and public domain works, as well as the mandatory use of security stickers on cassette and CD albums, also referred to as banderole or gamugram and designed to deter counterfeiting must be resolved first.
With all due respect to these musicians, industry personnel and academics who have hampered the formulation of the LI by their strong lobbying; you are the problem and not the solution.
In the 90s because of the banderole, musicians were selling more cassettes and receive earned profit. Today piracy is a million dollar business and profits are going to pirates, while record companies and music artists receive no earned profit.
Why is some lobbying for the delay of the LI? Do they want to make sure they earned profit from the sales of gamugram before they will allow it in the system? My father use to say that, “any one complaining of his meat being eaten by a mouse has indeed a small meat!”
Security device in the system would mean a great decrease in pirated products of a record company’s labels in the Ghanaian Music Market.
Musicians and music producers make money by selling more of their product not from the sales of security device.
Any one fighting against the security device may have a few if any products being pirated in the market.
Hopes for legal distribution are dwindling. The only solution is to bring back the security device! Let’s stop the politics.