Yvonne Okoro took to twitter Monday to defend President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo over charges of plagiarism being levelled at him over his inaugural speech.
Okoro, in an interaction with other twitter users, came to the defense of the President, utiliding a much used but debunked argument that the speech could not have been plagiarised because its original user, Woodrow Wilson, has been dead over 70 years.
“Accordin 2 our law is nt plagiarism if the author of the line has been dead for 70yrs,thus any1 cn use tht line without crediting the author” she tweeted at a twitter user challenging her on the issue.
“Shd we impeach the president nw becos of his speech,by the way accordin 2 our Copyright laws he’s nt wrong..Next News Item pls!Cn we move on” she added.
The defence she is using is one that was rife on social media after Nana Addo’s gaffe, with many people noting that copyright law allows the use of copyright material over 70 years after a person’s death. This ignores two problems – Nana Addo plagiarised Bill Clinton as well, and secondly, as GhanaCelebrities.Com editor Chris-Vincent Agyapong Febiri pointed out – copyright is different from plagiarism.
What is this 70 years copyright bullshit got to do with plagiarism?
Which copyright law are people quoting? And what has copyright really got to do with plagiarism?
Copyright Violation mainly is using the creative or invention of another without proper legal permission. So when we say you have violated someone’s copyright, it means you did not get permission to use someone’s works or writings.Copyright generally allows for fair use; which is you can use a small portion of someone’s work without the need for permission. Yet it’s appropriate or required to source, credit or reference the person.
Plagiarisms is using someone’s works or words and failing to credit this person, making it seems they were yours. It does not matter if the words or works are still protected by copyright.
Yvonne Okoro tried, but she was waay over the bar.
..
Bush isn’t the author of tht line, Woodrow Wilson is the author,didn’t hear bush creditin him(Wilson)in his speech.Can we move on now https://t.co/Oe7bMS8Ey0
— yvonne okoro (@yvonneokoro) January 9, 2017
Accordin 2 our law is nt plagiarism if the author of the line has been dead for 70yrs,thus any1 cn use tht line without crediting the author https://t.co/AcMz44MYlF
— yvonne okoro (@yvonneokoro) January 9, 2017
Shd we impeach the president nw becos of his speech,by the way accordin 2 our Copyright laws he’s nt wrong..Next News Item pls!Cn we move on
— yvonne okoro (@yvonneokoro) January 9, 2017