Rapper Trigmatic has called on players and stakeholders in the creative sector to put their support behind colleague Kirani Ayat amid his copyright feud with the Ghana Tourism Authority.

In a Twitter post, Trigmatic stated that this could have happened to anybody in the industry and thus this case could be a study for people in the industry in the future.

He wrote, “regardless of what the real story is, I expect to see creatives stand behind @KiraniAYAT as this could be a good case study for many others in time past and the future.”

Trigmatic added that “IP (Intellectual Property) and its issues are often taken for granted on this side and until people are prosecuted for such offences our crafts will continually be taken for granted. It’s one person today and could be you tomorrow.”

He urged people to desist from exploiting talents and paying them what they are worth.

Our crafts will continually be taken for granted. It’s one person today and could be you tomorrow. Stop exploiting talents and do the needful.

— TRIGMATIC (@trigmaticrocks) September 29, 2022

This comes after 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.

https://www.myjoyonline.com/kirani-ayat-calls-out-akufo-addo-tourism-ministry-after-promo-video-featured-shots-from-his-guda-visuals/

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.

https://www.myjoyonline.com/kirani-ayat-responds-to-the-ghana-tourism-authority-over-copyright-claims/

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.

https://www.myjoyonline.com/footage-for-akufo-addos-tourism-video-was-acquired-legitimately-from-an-agency-gta-on-kirani-ayats-theft-claims/

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.

https://www.myjoyonline.com/we-didnt-authorise-gta-to-use-footage-containing-kirani-ayats-video-ad-agency/

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 also using his content in the video believes their rights were infringed upon because of the lack of respect and understanding of intellectual property.

https://www.myjoyonline.com/fuse-odg-also-cites-gta-for-unauthorised-use-of-his-content/

“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.