Digital technology is challenge to music and copyright - AG

Accra, Nov. 23, GNA - Mr Ayikoi Otoo, Attorney - General and Minister of Justice, said on Tuesday that digital technology and the Internet had become the newest challenges to copyright and the music industry.

"These technologies are changing the way people listen to music, are making copyright works easily accessible and can be infringed upon than anything in the past," he said.

Mr Otoo was speaking at a day's workshop organised by the Ghana Association of Phonographic Industry (GAPI) in collaboration with the European Network of Independent Record Labels. The workshop was to introduce an Internet service dubbed Afrofile that would help to promote the Ghanaian music industry and offer musicians the opportunity to market their songs online in other countries.

The Attorney - General said with the current trend there was the need to understand how copyright laws applied to the Internet as streaming and digital downloading were the two main ways by which music was distributed on the Internet.

He said as Ghanaian musicians had decided to use the Internet to market their music, the Copyright Office of Ghana must help players in the industry to protect their works and expressed the hope that Parliament would resolve the issue if it was brought before it. Mr Otto said the music industry deserved some blame for failing to open up new possibilities of legally making music available in ways that consumers wanted it.

He said there was the need for the music industry to become flexible and responsive to new technologies and business models in order to enhance creativity of artistes and increase dissemination of music to the public.

Mr Otoo called for a balance of competing interests of copyright owners and the public.

"Just as the public needs to become educated about public law, the music industry needs to educate itself about new ways that music can be made available."

Mr Francis Mensah Twum, General Secretary of GAPI, said the Association had planned to come out with a bar coded identity device to check piracy adding that they were coming up with an anti-piracy squad to chase out pirates.

He expressed the hope that effective punitive measures would be put in place to protect musicians in the industry and called on all stakeholders to support the Association.

Mr Dagfinn Bach, President of Artspages International, sponsors of Afrofile, said they would provide systems of monitoring against piracy and other copyright infringements from the broadcast industry and entertainment centres.

He said the mobile phone industry had become one of the industries infringing on copyright with their music download service. Mr Bach urged musicians in Ghana to take advantage of the online service to meet global competition.