SAMPLING UNDER THE NIGERIAN LEGAL SYSTEM

Iaspm Journal, 2013

This article draws on qualitative data gained from interviews with a number of established UK dance music producers. Consideration is given to how sampling practice developed in the UK, including the influence of American hip-hop pioneers, the ethical rules that the producers apply to their use of samples, and the extent to which their compositional methods and creative choices have adapted in response to increasingly exacting copyright enforcement. It is argued that copyright and its application is one of a number of affordances and constraints, be they technological, industrial, sociocultural or legal that help to shape the creative practice of these producers.

Journal of Language, Technology & Entrepreneurship in Africa, 2019

This essay examines folksongs and its links with communities and cultures. It is this relationship which makes it look as a property of all. In this work, we reflected on metamorphosis of folksongs into parody and the height it has reached in Nigeria. It examines the new age of digitalisation which ought to be a blessing in Nigeria but looks more of a threat to intellectual property and its associated economic gains. It concludes that there is an urgent need to step up some substantive areas of property law to accommodate modern realities.

Dugbenu Vincent Taally, 2023

This paper explores the issue of music copyright infringement in Ghana. Ghana's music industry is thriving and has garnered global attention, but its growth is threatened by the prevalence of copyright infringement. Despite the existence of copyright laws and regulations, many individuals and organisations continue to engage in illegal activities such as unauthorised copyrighted music reproduction, distribution, and use. This study examines the factors that contribute to music copyright infringement in Ghana, as well as the legal mechanisms in place to address music copyright infringement in Ghana. It also discusses the impact of the infringement on the music industry and the country's economy. This study delves into the complexities of music copyright infringement in Ghana and highlights the importance of intellectual property rights protection in the music industry. The findings show that copyright infringement is a widespread problem in Ghana, and stakeholders must collaborate to develop effective strategies to combat it.

Social & Legal Studies, 2006

Shaped by a combination of romantic aesthetics and capitalist economics in the 19th century, the musical work was only enshrined in copyright law at the beginning of the 20th. However, even as the distinctiveness of the work was being legally inscribed, there emerged a new form of popular music making based on iteration. The recorded blues depended on continuity with other record-songs rather than the uniqueness of the individual work. Significantly, the phonographic orality at stake here was effectively unregulated, with ‘plagiarism’ being tolerated. The contrast is then with the hip hop genre. This has the same iterative mode as the blues, yet with the later style rights owners have become quite litigious, and now guard their symbolic property jealously. Focusing on the USA this article examines the differences between the two moments of blues and hip hop by analysing some key music copyright cases. It argues that despite stronger legal scrutiny of phonographic oral production in ...

The Journal of World Intellectual Property, 2006

2014

This chapter offers a critical analysis of copyright law that integrates insights from music. The authors argue that the unique qualities of musical works magnify the mismatch between creative practices and copyright doctrine, and suggest that an interdisciplinary analysis can shine a revealing light on both the problem and potential paths to improvement. Beginning with an overview of copyright doctrine in Canada in respect of musical works and music infringement claims, the authors then borrow analytical concepts from the discipline of music theory to problematize copyright's "reasonable listener" test for determining substantial copying. Using a specially-designed musical composition, the authors illustrate how and why this test may fail to perform its necessary role in the infringement analysis. The authors conclude by identifying some ways in which the legal analysis could be improved, including a more extensive use of both expert and survey evidence, and greater consideration of the accepted norms and practices of the relevant creative community. The overarching aim of this chapter is to demonstrate the importance of bringing the insights from musical and other creative disciplines to bear on the law of copyright, so that it might more accurately reflect the very practices it is meant to encourage.

In this presentation I want to examine the problems that the notion of copyright and its enforcement has had on two specific Ghanaian cases:-• An over-zealous anti-piracy campaign Predating the current struggle of the large multinational record companies to illegalise free music downloading on the internet, this paper will examine an anti-piracy 'crusade' that took place in Ghana during the 1980's that involved the intervention of foreign record companies and which wiped out a whole generation of young Ghanaian entrepreneurs from establishing a legal de-centralised music production industry based on cassette technology. • Problems of applying copyright to Ghanaian folklore The second focus of this paper is on the nationalisation of folk-music (and folklore generally) in Ghana in the 1980's and attempts since then of applying an internal folkloric copyright tax on local people for the commercial use of their own indigenous folklore, in a developing nation where their is still a vibrant and live folk culture. However before looking at these two areas of copyright in Ghana I will briefly look at some of the other problems created by imported Eurocentric copyright parameters. I will make this brief and summarise some of these points from some of my previously published papers 1 EURO-CENTRIC COPYRIGHT PARAMETERS In the West copyright began in connection with book publishing and evolved during a period when Europe and the United States were going through an industrial revolution linked to ideologies of possessive individualism, the Protestant work-ethic, and artistic romanticism with its focus on the 'immortal composer'. As a result copyright involves three Euro-centric assumptions. 1) There can be no copyright unless a work (art-work, design, writing, software, formula and non material inventions) has been written down, recorded or otherwise reduced to material form: a clear reflection of copyright's origin in book publishing. 2) A specific art-work (or intellectual idea) is created by a single or fixed group of identifiable persons who become its co-owner (with the publisher) for a definite number of years (now 70 years after the death of the author/composer), after which the works fall into the free public domain. 3) Because folkloric artistic forms rooted in pre-industrial societies are anonymous they are public property and belong to a common heritage. These Western notions of the ownership of musical works are often at odds with the artistic norms of pre-technological and developing countries as in many traditional and non/pre-industrial societies that do not have such extreme notions of music being a form of private property that can be used for individual commercial gain.

Journal of legal anthropology, 2023

In South Africa, the issue of musicians dying as paupers despite their fame relates to a set of factors, including technological developments that affected traditional modes of content distribution and archaic laws, that predates the internet. Relying on CISAC and IFPI reports, this article finds that while physical copies, which were by far the most rewarding mode of music distribution, have become obsolete, current modes of distribution -downloads and streaming -have diminished revenue for the South African musician. This situation is due to free streaming from platforms that enable user-uploaded content, as well as to negligible payouts from streaming platforms in general. Efforts by the legislature to address musicians' dwindling income are nevertheless contradictory. Looking at sections of the Copyright Amendment Bill and stakeholder submissions thereto, it is clear that the bill diminishes artists' economic rights through unmitigated exceptions while leaving the safe harbour provisions unaddressed, which pose a further risk to artists' income.

2022

This paper explores the relationship between the music industry and copyright law in Ghana to understand piracy and how piracy methods have changed since the post-colonial period. Following my previous research on the music industry and copyright law in Senegal, Benin and Ghana between the 1960s and 2010s, it conducts a detailed analysis on the relationship between the music industry and copyright law in Ghana. This paper is divided into two parts. It starts by examining how the Ghanaian Copyright Office instructs its officers, educates students at college and university, and the general public to promote copyright law in a positive light. Lastly, it will explore the distinct Ghanaian music genres through a timeline of its developments, highlighting some critical aspects of popularity in each decade from the 1970s onwards and exploring how the music sector has contributed to the economy of Ghana. My research is based on bibliographic research and detailed analysis of liner notes from records (vinyl & CD), mainly compilations of Ghanaian music released in recent years. It will discuss the Comprehensive Study of the Music Industry in Ghana, as carried out by The Musicians Union of Ghana in 2015. It will be looking at the works of John Collins to understand the issues that Ghanaian musicians have faced with copyright and piracy. I aim to bring to discussion the development of Ghanaian music genres over the last half-century and the relationship between the music industry and copyright law in this West African country. Keywords: post-colonial, Ghana, copyright law, music industry, piracy