Musician Kirani Ayat has revealed that his team has been engaging the Ghana Tourism Authority over the copyright infringement matter.

The discussion started after he called the latter out for using his video without approval.

Speaking on Daybreak Hitz on Hitz FM, the ‘Aisha’s Son’ singer said that the negotiations are almost done, adding he will update fans when they get to a definite conclusion.

“All the subsequent issues, we were trying to negotiate and agree with the terms and all of that. We have agreed to a point, so, we are almost there,” Kirani Ayat stated on Thursday.

He added that “but right now, it is just left with ironing out everything and putting out a statement. There has to be compensation, it is part of the discussion. So by either this week or next week, we can let the people know.”

Kirani Ayat noted that discussions with government agencies can take a bit of time, hence his decision to stay away from discussing details of the issue until an agreement is reached.

He added that although he cannot make public his demands of the GTA, he expects them to be fair.

Background

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.

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.