The President of the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG), James Aboagye has criticized Ghana's copyright laws, calling them practically non-existent and detrimental to the creative sector's growth.
Speaking to the state-owned Graphic Showbiz newspaper, Mr Aboagye blamed the Ghana Copyright Office's failure to go digital, hindering the fight against piracy and discouraging new creations.
"Last year, I created content which went viral, and a Nigerian uploaded it on his YouTube channel. When I decided to upload it, YouTube flagged it. I was told I could not do it because it was not mine. How do we fight these issues?
"Our current copyright laws do not make provision for these online contents and your intellectual property just goes down the drain in just a second.
“So, if someone pirates your content and you manage to take them on, and they get a good lawyer to defend them, you are finished, because there is no legal backing for you again,” he said.
Mr Aboagye further expressed concern about the outdated mentality of the Ghana Copyright Office, emphasizing that current laws lack provisions to protect content creators in the digital age.
"The Copyright Office is not doing much. They don’t even have plans to develop digital certificates which we could stand on to challenge certain institutions.
"This is because when someone uploads your content and you challenge it, they can grant your request if you have a digital certificate for the content you have produced,” he stated.
He thus called for more sensitization and education to be given to stakeholders about issues of copyright, royalties and other related matters to prevent conflicts.
"There is much education to be done to sensitise stakeholders on these copyright issues, royalties and acquisition to avoid conflict of interest,” he added.
ID/MA
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FIPAG President, James Aboagye