GHAMRO established under Copyright Act 690 of 2005and regulated by Legislative Instrument 1962 of 2010, is the only organization mandated by the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice to license, collect and distribute royalties on behalf of music right holders in Ghana.
According to L.I. 1962, any person who intends to perform the work of an author or cause the work of the author to be performed in public or do any act in respect of work protected under the Copyright Act, shall apply to the appropriate society for a Licence for the performance of the work. This is in fulfilment of rights granted under section 5 of the Act, where the author of protected copyright work has the exclusive economic right in respect of the work to do or authorize the public performance, broadcasting and communication of the work to the public.
Last month, according to online news an amount of GHC411, 640 which forms part of royalties collected from last year was added to the statutory distribution of GhC1,334,400 thus raising the current distribution amount for the December 2016 royalties to GhC1,746,000, an increase of 20 per cent.
Shatta Wale apparently is yet to receive his share of the royalties so he took to social media to sound a word of caution to the executives of the union to pay up or face his wrath. He wrote: GHAMRO are you ready to pay my royalties or you want me to go haywire!!.”
As at press time, GHAMRO has not reacted to his post.