On the copyright matter
1. For music rights, each song is considered to have two main elements – lyrics (words) and composition (beat, arrangements, melody).
2. By default, any person contributing to creating any of these elements has a claim to rights. Yes, even if you just coughed and it was recorded.
3. In most instances, a musician can hardly have 100% of the rights considering that it often takes more than one person to put a song together.
4. One person can have that 100% claim if he or she did everything in putting the song together from lyrics to every aspect of composition. Or the person brought others on board with a clear agreement that you are being hired and fully compensated and no rights will result from your participation.
5. The primary proof of who has rights is the product and its elements. The split sheet is to document and allocate rights in percentages according to who contributed to what. The filing of this split sheet with a copyright body or publisher is then additional proof.
6. Thus, I don’t think the registration of a song is the primary and incontrovertible proof of rights. It is only good till it is challenged. Moreover, when you register a song, copyright offices do not listen to that song to verify who has contributed. In fact, they cannot know that this song de33 Akwaboah must have written it or Koo Nimo.
7. In essence, at the point of registration, the person or publisher is being trusted by the system. This means that there’s a lot of room for people to be shady. Collaborate with others and quietly go and register it as some sole ownership. That one is practically saying he or she either paid everybody off for good or they wrote the song, created melody, arrangements and the beat or collaborators clearly agreed to contribute for free. This is how a lot of creatives have been cheated over the years in Ghana.
8. If you own everything, then you show how you came to own everything… element by element. “It is my song” is practically just talk. And talk as you all say these days is …😃
I am also not convinced that if your rights are abused for many years you lose the right to reclaim them over time. That will be a dangerous standard.
I don’t have a dog in this fight. They should work together for their own good and I think Hammer could have some claim too. So the three parties should join forces and cash in.
