Copyright case: Kirani Ayat and GTA finally settle their differences

Musician Kirani Ayat has announced that his team and the Ghana Tourism Authority have finally settled the copyright infringement matter.

In a joint press statement posted via his Twitter account on Monday, October 31, 2022, the ‘Guda’ hitmaker who has been in the news for some time due to a misunderstanding between himself and the Ghana Tourism Authority, admitted to having settled their differences.

” On September 27, 2022, Mr. Ayat Maqwam, aka Kirani Ayat became aware that visual outtakes of his Guda video had been used by the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) without his consent.

According to GTA, these visuals have been used extensively since 2019 for the production of various contents promoting tourism to the country.

We are pleased to announce that the parties have reached an amicable agreement in settlement.

Moving forward, Ayat and GTA will collaborate on a number of projects aimed at showcasing Ghana, our beautiful landscapes, and exciting talents to the world.

Ayat appreciates all support from the good people of Ghana throughout this process. His new project, Aisha's Sun is available now on all music streaming platforms” the statement said.

This comes after Kirani Ayat called out the Ghana Tourism Authority in a Twitter post for using some visuals of his ‘Guda’ song, in a Tourism promotional video for the president without his consent weeks back.

Kirani Ayat who was not pleased to see his work used without his consent noted that he spent money on making the video without aid from anyone and yet he was not compensated after his content was used.

But, the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) dismissed claims that some footage used for the new tourism promotional video was pirated.

In a press statement, the Authority stated that they procured the footage Kirani Ayat is claiming ownership of legitimately from a creative agency in 2019 as part of a project.

However, Samsal denied giving the Authority the go-ahead to use a mood board type of visual presentation or ‘collage’ consisting of images, text, and samples of objects in a composition containing Kirani Ayat’s video.

According to the company, the video reel they showed the GTA was only to give them an example of the type of content they intend to produce for the Authority as part of their agreement.

They added that the GTA also did not use the video reel they initially created.

Read Full Story