Musician, Fuse ODG, has sympathised with fellow singer and rapper, Kirani Ayat, over the latter calling out the Tourism Ministry and the Authority for copyright infringement.

According to him, he has suffered similar fate in the past. He claimed ownership of some excerpts in the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA)’s promotional video that featured President Akufo-Addo.

“We sympathise with Kirani Ayat. As creative persons, we sacrifice a lot to be able to put together a song, let alone a whole video with high-quality production value.”
Fuse ODG

Contained in a press statement released by his company, New Africa Nation, the musician’s team revealed that some scenes were picked from his video ‘New African Girl’.

Fuse ODG indicated that his company has sanctioned works in the past for government use, most notably, his 2018 record, “Bra Fie” featuring Damian Marley, which was used as the theme song for the ‘Year of Return’; which he launched via the TINA Festival alongside the President of Ghana.

However, he noted that “no such process was observed in relation to the recent video in question regarding our record ‘New African Girl”.

The ‘Antenna’ hitmaker 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.”
Fuse ODG

The singer expressed hope that the GTA and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture will invest in more education around intellectual property both internally and for the creative sector.

“In the meantime, our legal team is in discussion with the Ministry and their legal team in order to resolve this issue.”
Fuse ODG

Sarkodie backs Kirani in copyright infringement against GTA

Meanwhile, Rapper Sarkodie, has thrown his weight behind Kirani Ayat in the latter’s bid to get the Ministry of Tourism and the Ghana Tourism Authority to compensate him for using his content without consent.

In a tweet, Sarkodie noted that musicians work tirelessly to sell the country to investors and tourists with no help whatsoever from the government. The ‘Pizza and Bigger’ hitmaker stated that he would support Kirani Ayat to get his due especially since the musician reached out to the Tourism Ministry and did not get any help.

“We (creatives) do a lot to put our country out there, attracting a lot of tourists and investors that translates to money to help nation building yet that’s one sector with no support… I feel my brother and support him especially if he actually reached out and didn’t get help.”
Sarkodie

It will be recalled that musician, Kirani Ayat, lashed out at 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.