‘I have not given rights to any agency to use my work’ – Kirani Ayat replies GTA

The dispute over copyright infringement between Ghanaian musician Kirani Ayat and the Ghana Tourism Authority does not appear to be going away anytime soon.

Kirani Ayat called out the Presidency yesterday for using parts of his music video in an advertisement without his permission.

Read Also: Kirani Ayat calls out the President for using his creative property without his permission

This came after the President, H.E. Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, shared a video promoting tourism in Ghana to coincide with World Tourism Day 2022.
According to Kirani Ayat, the President used a portion of his “Guda” video in the advertisement, despite the fact that in the 2018/2019 fiscal year, he received no response after contacting the Ministry of Tourism to request permission to use the video to promote tourism in the north.

Some portions of Kirani Ayat’s music video for his hit song “Guda” can be seen in the video, which captures beautiful scenes of the country with a VoiceOver by the President.

Read Also: Kirani Ayat’s footage was legitimately acquired- Ghana Tourism Authority

The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) responded today to the claims of copyright infringement made by Kirani Ayat.

According to a GTA statement, the footage was purchased from a creative agency three years ago and has been used for promotional purposes both locally and internationally.

The GTA, on the other hand, did not reveal the name of the agency that created the video, only stating that Kirani Ayat’s concerns had been forwarded to them.

In a statement issued in response to the Ghana Tourism Authority’s (GTA) statement, Kirani denied giving any agency rights to his intellectual property and threatened legal action against the authority.

See his statement below.

In response to the Ghana Tourism Authority statement.

I would like to state I and ONLY I (Kirani Ayat) owns the rights to the GUDA video. No agency has ANY rights or have been granted any rights to use my video for the visit Ghana Ad campaign. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/vswVjqTtHJ

— Kirani Ayat 🌍 (@KiraniAYAT) September 28, 2022