Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs. Betty Mould Iddrisu, has challenged journalists and indeed owners of literary works illegally assumed and used by others to go to court to seek redress. She said regrettable though the choice may seem, creators and authors of creative works have their rights - both economic and patent - protected by national laws and international treaties to which Ghana has willingly accented, and it is time journalists tested the laws in the courts to stop the flagrant yet unauthorized use of others’ intellectual property. Mrs. Mould Iddrisu was speaking at a symposium on the rights and responsibilities of the media under the Copyright Law organized by the Editors Forum in Accra. “I wish there were more lawsuits, I would encourage all of you to use the courts… The courts have a primary function and responsibility to interpret the law. We do not have enough case law in the area of intellectual property… The Judges need to expound on the law and that gives the law richness, meaning. It also would then serve as a guide to those of you practitioners who use copyrighted works or who produce copyrighted works. The problem is that intellectual property is a private right. The right belongs to you the author or you the producer. A state comes in to regulate the unauthorized reproduction or taking; it is theft.” She said the law is so basic media practitioners are required at all times to be guided by the simple principle of attribution: “…One newspaper or one media house cannot lift another reporter’s work verbatim, you can’t lift another person’s footage and put it on as yours, basic! The principles that guide media are what, attribution, attribution, attribution… It means giving credit to the source, basic.” Mrs. Mould Iddrisu said stealing someone’s intellectual property without the appropriate attribution is similar to stealing someone else’s television set or jewelry from their home, and remedies could be civil or criminal. She said it is not enough for intellectual property owners to complain about abuses or improper use of their works and then look to the state to remedy the situation for them but they should seek to enforce the protection of their rights. The Copyright Administrator, Mr. Bernard Bosumprah, said it is untrue for anyone to say that publications in the new media (internet) are not covered by the copyright laws because such publications automatically render the works public domain material. He said two Internet Treaties namely; WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and WIPO Performance and Phonogram Treaty (WPPT), concluded in 1996 under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to respond to the challenges of protecting and managing copyright and related rights in the digital age, ensure that owners of rights are protected when their works are disseminated on the internet. “It is an incontrovertible fact that we live in a world of borrowing and personnel in the media all over the world benefit in one way or the other from works of other media. “But it is important that the use of any other person's work must be accompanied by the corresponding authorization and acknowledgement of the creator's original contribution to knowledge, his ingenuity and power of creation. Plagiarism amounts to unpardonable intellectual dishonesty or simply put, stealing,” he stressed, and called for a better collaboration between journalists and his office to ensure their rights are protected and that they get fair reward for their creativity.