The Ghana Tourism Authority and rapper Kirani Ayat have reached a settlement after the former was accused of infringing on the musician’s copyrights.
This was after they used footage from the video for Kirani’s song ‘Guda’ as part of a tourism reel.
A statement posted to Kirani Ayat’s Twitter page noted that “the parties have reached an amicable agreement in settlement.”
However, details of the agreement were not mentioned.
Aside from reaching a settlement, the rapper and the GTA will collaborate on a number of projects aimed at showcasing Ghana.
“Ayat appreciates all support from the good people of Ghana throughout this process,” part of the statement reads.
Announcement of settlements.
To the good people of Ghana, thank you.pic.twitter.com/5JM6H2WyCe
— Kirani Ayat + The Spireeet
(@KiraniAYAT) October 31, 2022
Background
In September, musician Kirani Ayat called out the Tourism Ministry and the Authority for copyright infringement.
A video shared on President Akufo-Addo’s social media handles promoting tourism used footage from his ‘Guda’ music video.
Kirani Ayat who was not pleased to see his work used without his consent noted that he spent money in making the video without aid from anyone and yet he was not compensated after his content was used.
But, the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) dismissed claims that some footage used for the new tourism promotional video was pirated.
In a press statement, the Authority stated that they procured the footage Kirani Ayat is claiming ownership of legitimately from a creative agency in 2019 as part of a project.
However, Samsal denied giving the Authority the go-ahead to use a mood board – a type of visual presentation or ‘collage’ consisting of images, text and samples of objects in a composition – containing Kirani Ayat’s video.
According to the company, the video reel they showed the GTA was only to give them an example of the type of content they intend to produce for the Authority as part of their agreement.
They added that the GTA also did not use the video reel they initially created.
Other acts including Sarkodie and Trigmatic also threw their weight behind Kirani Ayat calling on the Authority to do what’s right.
Meanwhile, Fuse ODG who also called out the Authority for using his content in the video believes their rights were infringed upon because of the lack of respect and understanding of intellectual property.
“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.”
The singer noted that they hope the GTA and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture invest in more education around intellectual property both internally and for the creative sector.
