Ghanaian rapper Kirani Ayat takes on govt for copyright infringement

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Kirani Ayat accused the president of using scenes from his music video ‘Guda’ without his permission, noting that around the time of the video’s release, he had been actively reaching out to the Ministry of Tourism to use the same video to push tourism in the north and got no reply.

“Whoever worked on this video should’ve reached out to the rightful content owners first,” he added. “I spent my resources making ‘Guda’ possible, I’m sure you were paid for this job, where is my cut?”

The David Nicol-Sey-directed video published in October 2018, features immersive landscapes and culture of northern Ghana. It was awarded the Overall Best Video Award at the 2019 4syte Music Video Awards.

Responding to the allegation in a press release on Wednesday, the Ghana Tourism Authority denied government wrongdoing, insisting that the footage was procured legally from a creative agency named SAMSAL Company Ltd in 2019 as part of a project.

“According to Clause 2 (b) of the MoU signed with the Agency (Obligations: Responsibility of the Agency), the agency was to “deliver imaginative and impactful social strategies, such as content or documentaries for the use of GTA as it so wishes. The agency delivered the content to the authority, and the authority used the content in accordance with the terms of the MoU,” the statement reads.

“The above notwithstanding, since the authority became aware of the tweet from @KiraniAYAT, we have reached out to the agency to deal with the matter. This is without prejudice to any legal options available to the Authority against the Artiste and/or Agency or vice versa.”

Shortly after, Kirani Ayat issued a rebuttal, tweeting that he had not given rights to any agency or government organisation to use his intellectual property. 

Meanwhile, SAMSAL, the agency at the centre of the controversy, has denied granting the GTA permission to share the video clip, accusing the authority of failing to deliver on its financial obligation as agreed upon under the MoU and instead repurposing content and circulating it. 

The dispute has since generated a public uproar, particularly among creatives. Fellow musicians, notably rapper Sarkodie, have backed Kirani Ayat.

“We [creatives] do a lot to put our country out there, attracting a lot of tourists and investors that translates to money to help nation building, yet that’s one sector with no support,” Sarkodie tweeted. “I feel my brother and support him especially if he actually reached out and didn’t get help.”

Born Ayat Maqwam Salis, Kirani Ayat is the second Ghanaian musician this month to take on an organisation for infringement of IP rights. Last week, it emerged that producer Kwabena ‘Spiky Beats’ Ofei-Kwadey Nkrumah is suing the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for using a soundtrack he produced without permission three years ago.