The President of the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG), James Aboagye has expressed the need for the country’s copyright authorities to embrace digital media in the fight against piracy.
According to him, the failure of the Copyright Office of Ghana to go digital, is discouraging the creation of new works and hindering the fight against piracy as well as other copyright infringements in the country’s creative industry.
Aboagye noted that the challenges with the copyright office have rendered the copyright laws of Ghana as virtually non-existent.
He told the media that the copyright laws lacked provisions that allow content creators to assert their rights in case of piracy and other challenges they face when unauthorized reproduction of their work occurs.
“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,” Aboagye added.
He cited that his viral work was stolen by a Nigerian and could not retrieve his contents due to the lapses in the country’s copyright laws.
“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,” Mr Aboagye lamented.
In moving forward, he underscored an urgent need for the Copyright Office to issue digital certificates to movie producers and creatives to empower creators to claim ownership on prominent video streaming platforms.
Source: Ghana/MaxTV/MaxFM/max.com.gh/Joyceline Natally Cudjoe
