Device to authenticate musical works launched

Accra, Feb. 22, GNA - A device to determine the authenticity of genuine musical works - hologram - was on Tuesday launched in Accra.

Nana Akuoko Sarpong, Chairman of the National Commission on Culture (NCC), said Ghana would be the first to introduce the modern type of security self-adhesive label in Africa.

The device, which costs 433 million cedis replaces the banderole and is expected to appear on cassettes and Compact Disk as evidence that mechanical rights have been paid.

Nana Akuoko Sarpong, said government is keen on ensuring that the field of intellectual property and in particular music copyright is "kept clear of the debilitating effects of piracy".

He said music pirates continue to take advantage of technological development to continue copying other peoples' works to sell at lower prices thus undermining the possibility of the original authors and investors gaining from the economic benefits of their toils and investments.

Nana Akuoko Sarpong pointed out that just as its criminal and reprehensible to take somebody's property without his consent so does exploiting a creative person's intellectual property amount to stealing.

Ghana would study the impact of music and other leisure and cultural industries on the economy. The Chairman said the study would enable the Commission to demonstrate the importance of culture to the economy.

He said the introductory price of the hologram would remain the same as the banderole and added that consultations would be held soon with stakeholders for an upward review to take account for increase in foreign exchange rate and VAT.

The Hologram was designed, developed and produced by the Oversight Committee of the Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGA) and has the map of Ghana as its logo.

It also has a black star embodied with micro lines, which can be read with a magnifying glass. Mr Joe Mensah, Member of the Oversight Committee said the Hologram is extremely difficult to copy due to its complicated technical structure and is known to provide the highest level of security.

He said it "is tamper-evident and cannot be removed from the surface to which it is attached without damaging the label". He said for the first phase, 2.5 million copies have been ordered "and this will be computerised in about six months to reduce piracy substantially".

Mr Mensah said about eight million banderoles were sold in a year but "with this new system, we might sell about 20 million copies of cassettes a year". He said the incidence of piracy of musical works is about 40 per cent and expressed the hope that with the introduction of the new device, this would be reduced to about 10 per cent. He said 10 million orders, have been placed for the start.