Copyright, folklore and music piracy in Ghana

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11416619
AutoresJohn Collins (0000-0002-3180-4357, University of Ghana, autor de correspondencia)
Año2006
Volumen20
Número1
Páginas158-170
Fecha de publicación2006-07-01
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCritical Arts (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0256-0046 • E-ISSN: 1992-6049
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02560040608557784
OpenAlexW1970824013
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7

This paper examines the problems inadvertently created by modern notions of musical copyright (i.e. based on the individual ownership of specific works) introduced to Ghana via trans-national organisations such as multinational record companies, the business side of international ‘superstars’ and global copyright societies. The resulting conundrums for Ghana's musical evolution that will be examined in this paper, are of three types, namely: 1. Eurocentric copyright parameters Indigenous notions of the multiple components (tune, words, rhythm, movement and dance) of performance and the inseparability of performer and composer are challenged by imported Western copyright notions that treat music as just melody and lyrics, and place the onus of authorship solely on the composer. 2. An over-zealous anti-piracy crusade The seemingly militant anti-copyright-piracy campaign in Ghana during the 1980s, that involved the active intervention of foreign record companies, wiped out a whole generation of young Ghanaian entrepreneurs, preventing them from establishing a legal, decentralised music production industry based on cassette technology. 3. The WIPO/Paul Simon factor Due to the combined effects of recommendations by WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) and royalty payments to Ghana by the American musician Paul Simon for the WEA/Warner release ‘Rhythms of the Saints’, the idea of a folkloric licence or tax being applied to Ghanaian nationals for the commercial use of their own indigenous folklore was muted for some years. In 2006 this idea was incorporated amidst stiff opposition, into the country's new Copyright Bill

Art · Copyright Act · Copyright law · Folklore · Indigenous · Intellectual property · Literature · Lyrics · Media studies · Multinational corporation · Music education · Music industry · Musical · Performing arts · Political science · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropology · Copyright and Intellectual Property · Law · Music History and Culture

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