GBC, Others Dragged To Court Over Non-Payment Of Royalties

Chairman of the Ghana Music Rights Organisation (GHAMRO), Rex Owusu Marfo (Rex Omar), has revealed that the organisation has taken all telecommunication companies in the country and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation to court for refusing to royalties to GHAMRO.

He said GHAMRO is a collective society registered under the laws of Ghana and authorised by law to basically license, collect and distribute royalties for and on behalf of musicians/authors, composers and producers/publishers of musical works in the country.

Rex Omar, who made this known in an interview on GHOne TV, emphasized that the attitude of music people not wanting to pay to use music is hampering the progress of the music industry in the country.

The GHAMRO chairman disclosed that the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and all the telecommunication companies have defaulted in the payment of royalties for over five years or so in spite of prompting them to pay.

He revealed that the collective society will soon adopt other strategies to retrieve its moneys from other music users who have also refused to pay royalties to GHAMRO.

Rex Omar added that GHAMRO is currently preparing to take legal action against music users which include the radio stations, hotels, nightclubs, among others, for non-payment of royalties.

He announced that GHAMRO will soon hold series of workshops for music users and the stakeholders in the music industry to educate them on its activities and also to establish a working relationship with them.

The workshop will also educate the music users on copyright laws protecting the music right owners and other related laws.

Rex Omar also indicated that for this idea to become a reality, the GHAMRO has set up an agenda to create a GHAMRO-media platform to educate the media on the operations of GHAMRO.

He expressed deep worry about the high number of industry players who lack deep understanding of matters relating to copyrights, and mentioned that a lot of education and sensitisation would have to be carried out to change this.