‘Absence of licence makes photocopying illegal’
The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, has stated that the Copyright Act, upholds the exclusive right of authors and publishers to authorise or prohibit the reproduction of their works.
In a speech read on her behalf at the launch of CopyGhana’s Statistical Survey Report on Photocopying and Digital Copying in Tertiary Educational Institutions in Ghana in Accra, she said the Copyright Act 2005, Act 690 and Copyright Regulations 2010, LI 1962 were both passed to ensure the adequate protection of copyright in the country.
CopyGhana is a local reprographic rights organisation.
Mrs Appiah-Oppong noted that massive copying in tertiary institutions was being done without much regard to the Copyright Law of Ghana.
“The reproduction of a copyright work, and for that matter, a literary work, in any form, manner and quantity is an exclusive right granted under the Copyright Act to authors and publishers. Copyright, therefore, upholds the exclusive right of the author and the publisher to authorise or prohibit the reproduction of their works,” she explained.
Support
Mrs Appiah-Oppong said the Ministry of Justice would, therefore, give the needed legal and moral support to CopyGhana to ensure that literary rights holders maximised the benefits of their creativity without any conflict or acrimony between the creators and the users of literary works.
Dr Godfred Kwesi Annoh, the Chairman of CopyGhana, Reprographic Rights Organisation of Ghana, said the massive photocopying and digital copying of literary works taking place in the educational institutions were negatively affecting the economic rights of the creators of the work.
He said CopyGhana would grant a licence to educational institutions that would legally permit the users in the institutions to photocopy or digitally copy works other than their own,
“The absence of the licence makes photocopying and digital copying of a copyright protected work illegal,” he pointed out.
Dr Annoh said CopyGhana was also arranging with the tertiary institutions under a memorandum of understanding, to allow students pay a token fee, called blanket reprographic fee, per student per academic year.
Survey
On the survey carried out by CopyGhana to investigate the extent of photocopying and digital copying in seven tertiary institutions in Ghana, he said it revealed that 87.5 per cent of students and 85.5 per cent of lecturers made photocopies of literary works.
The survey, conducted with technical and financial support from the Reprographic Rights Organisation of Norway and the Copyright Clearance Centre of the US, revealed that the main reason cited for photocopying by both students and lecturers was that only small portions of the materials were needed and so there was no need to purchase the whole book.
The survey also indicated that textbooks were the most photocopied materials by both students and lecturers.
It also showed that while students copied more of local materials, lecturers copied more of foreign materials.
Dr Annoh said one important way owners of literary rights derived income was royalty from the photocopying and digital copying of their works and it, therefore, behoved Ghanaians to also pay token fees to authors and publishers to compensate them for their toil.
Mrs Dzifa Abla Gomashie, the deputy Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, speaking at the function, urged CopyGhana to collaborate with the law enforcement agencies to protect people’s works.
