Kirani Ayat, GTA to reach agreement on intellectual property case soon
The copyright feud between musician, Kirani Ayat and the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) that caused a stir in the country may soon come to an end as the musician has revealed that his team has been engaging the Ghana Tourism Authority over the copyright infringement matter.
Speaking on Accra-based Hitz FM on Thursday, October 13, Kirani Ayat said his team and GTA have begun negotiations and discussions on compensation to be paid by the government agency for using his works without consent.
He mentioned that he expects the ongoing process to conclude by next week adding that he will provide a briefing to the public on what has been reached.
“All the subsequent issues, we were trying to negotiate and agree with the terms and all of that. We have agreed to a point, so, we are almost there.
“But right now, it is just left with ironing out everything and putting out a statement. There has to be compensation, it is part of the discussion. So by either this week or next week, we can let the people know,” Kirani Ayat said.
The musician was however silent on the details of discussions stating that it was because a full agreement has not been reached.
He said even though he cannot publicly state the details, he anticipates GTA to be fair in their dealings.
It will be recalled that Kirani Ayat took to Twitter to express his displeasure at the use of his works without permission.
He was reacting to a tourism promotion video that was posted on President Akufo-Addo’s Twitter handle which contained footage from his ‘GUDA’ song.
“The president of Ghana has used my video ‘GUDA’ in this ad to promote Ghana. I was actively reaching out to the Ministry of Tourism in 2018/19 to use this video to push tourism in the North and got NO reply, yet today it’s in an ad and no one reached out to me for permission,” Kirani Ayat tweeted.
GTA however denied any wrongdoing stating that it legitimately acquired rights to use the footage from an agency later named as Samsal.
However, in a September 28, 2022 statement, Samsal denied authorising GTA to use Ayat’s video.
It explained that it entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with GTA to promote Digital Wrist Band – a wristband that granted access to highly sought-after events slated for the Christmas season – to tourists and foreigners.
Per the MoU, the agency said GTA was to give it the needed support in terms of finances and logistics in order to produce video content to market Ghana to the world in that regard.
Consequently, Samsal said it put together a video reel (mood board) for the GTA that included parts of Ayat’s ‘GUDA’ video to demonstrate the vision it had for videos it intended to subsequently create for the campaign.