Copyright laws in Ghana are quite comprehensive, considering the fact that it is a developing country. The law book has laws that protect every type of intellectual property; from music, movies, computer software, and literary works to visual arts like paintings and sculptures. For this reason, it is important for anyone who creates any form of art to understand the legal protection his or her work enjoys under international law as well as the law of Ghana.
Copyright law in Ghana is governed by the Copyright Act, 1992 (Act 690) as amended by Act 890 of 1997. The Copyright Act holds protection for original literary, artistic, and musical work. It prevents others from making use of or reproducing the work without permission from the creator.
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Types of Copyright Laws In Ghana
Copyright protection is accorded to literary, musical, and artistic works under Ghanaian law. Copyright protects the expressions of an author’s original creativity in the form of literary and artistic works which is capable of being recorded in some material form.
- Literary, musical and dramatic works.
- Pantomimes and choreographic works.
- Pictorial, graphic and sculptural works.
- Sound recordings.
- Motion pictures and other AV works.
- Computer programs.
- Compilations of works and derivative works.
- Architectural works.
Ghana has its own peculiarities when it comes to copyright laws. Most of the countries in the world have signed the International Copyright Law Treaty (also known as the Berne Convention), which gives each signatory state protection for their works for a period of fifty years after the death of the author. Ghana is not one of them; it only joined the treaty in 1968, but there are still some differences between how Ghana implements copyrights and what is stipulated by international law.
Conclusion
Copyright law, legal protection for original works including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, which generally includes computer programs and databases. It is the principal form of intellectual property law in most countries around the world. Copyright protects only the original expression of ideas; it does not extend to any underlying ideas themselves…
If an artist takes a picture of a photographer and makes a painting out of it, is the artist breaking the copyright law according to the Ghana copyright law?