Felix Bell goes wild

Felix Bell, a household name in Ghanaian music has expressed concerned about the failure of the Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGA) to educate right owners on the formation of the Music Copyright Society of Ghana (M-COSGA).

According to him, he and his colleagues got to know about the new society at the offices of COSGA during the distribution of royalties to musicians.

“I refused to sign the paper because the COSGA board failed to explain the rationale behind the formation of the new society,” Felix said.

He argued that in every democratic society there should be transparency in whatever one does and with an organization like COSGA the right owners should be allowed to come out with suggestions on every decision taken by the board.

He declared: “I am not against COSGA forming a new collective society, but my problem with COSGA is that under the new Copyright Act 690 section 49 it is only Authors, Producers, Performers and Publishers who may form collective administration societies for the promotion and protection of their interest, but COSGA failed to inform all the stakeholders on its decision to form a new collective society on their behalf.”

Felix further hinted that the new Copyright Act stated that the minister may by legislative instrument make regulations for the formation, operation and administration of societies, adding that COSGA had failed to comply with the new copyright law.

When Beatwaves contacted the chairman of COSGA Board, Alhaji Sidiku Buari, he stated it was not compulsory for any stakeholder to become a member of the newly formed society, adding “M-COSGA was established to replace COSGA which seizes to exist under the new copyright law”.

He noted that the new society would not force right owners to become members. He however confirmed that right owners who wanted to become members of the new society were being given forms to fill at the copyright office.

The chairman of the Ghana Association of Phonographic Industry (GAPI), John Mensah Sarpong also confirmed that under the new law COSGA does not exist and in order to get the system running a new society has to be formed and M-COSGA was for only musicians.

The formation of the new society, he said, was a laudable idea since the music industry needed a very good system to run it, and this must be embraced by all.