Motac Educate Practioners On Intellectual Property Rights

The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture in collaboration with the Creative Arts Council and the Ghana Tourism Authority on Thursday held a masterclass to enlighten practitioners on laws related to their work.

This workshop was the second Creative Arts masterclass organised by the above outfits.

Thursday’s masterclass explored the topic “Intellectual Property & Rights” and all other related issues of concern to members of the Creative Arts Council.

Legal practitioner, Johnathan Cudjoe led discussions at the Accra Tourist Information Center to examine the area of intellectual property and copyrights within the arts fraternity.

He was joined by the President of the Creative Arts Council, Mark Okraku Mantey, the Administrator of GHAMRO; Abraham Adjetey, a Director at the National Commission on Culture; Socrates Sarfo and a member of the Copy Right Monitoring Team, Yaw Osborn.

The President of the Ghana Actors Guild in Ashanti Region, Bill Asamoah; veteran music producer, Fred Kyei Mensah and President of Models Union of Ghana, Mrs Lilian Sally Hinson-Asare, were also present as well as other leaders of arts organisations and the media.

Mr. Cudjoe elaborated on some of the copyright matters including economic rights, moral rights, mechanical rights and other authorship rights.

On the use of music or any other intellectual property by media houses during their programs, the lawyer noted that media firms must seek permission from right owners before they save any piece of Radio or TV recordings that contains intellectual properties of artistes.

Artistes were encouraged to register every piece of artwork they create to prevent imitation and the infringement on copyrights.

A member of the Copy Right Monitoring Team, Yaw Osborn revealed that the team is quite handicapped due to financial constraints hence their inability to effectively clamp down on piracy-related activities.

Patrons had the opportunity to ask the resource persons questions on the topic of ‘Intellectual Property & Rights’.

Mark Okraku Mantey announced that the next masterclass will be organised in Kumasi.

He urged all members of the arts fraternity to take part in the workshop adding that the date and venue will soon be announced.

---Myjoyonline