Hello everyone,
It is a fact that for many African countries especially, a common
thing like a selfie with a national statue can be copyright infringement.
For some time now Wikimedia Ghana UG <https://wmghug.wordpress.com/>has
been learning what it needs to do to have Freedom of Panorama introduced in
Ghana.
Today we are happy to announce that following a session
<https://accra18.re-publica.com/en/session/freedom-panorama-why-free-knowledge-matters-africa>
on Freedom of Panorama with Douglas Scott of Wikipedia ZA at re:publica Accra
conference <https://accra18.re-publica.com/en>, we have put up a petition
on
change.org for the President of Ghana to put his weight behind this.
Before you sign the petition you'll need to know this:
*Problem:*
Ghana's Copyright Act of 2003, Act 690 at the moment restricts Freedom of
Panorama.
Because of the restriction of Freedom of Panorama taking a photo or video,
or creating images or copies of monuments, buildings, sculptures and other
permanently public artwork including those belonging to the state could be
a crime.
*Our Request *
We are petitioning his excellency and our minister for the arts to have
Parliament revisit our Copyright Act of 2003, Act 690 and grant Freedom of
Panorama.
*About Fair Dealing In Ghana*
We have put a preamble to our FOP research as adviced by a lawyer here
<http://bit.ly/FOPPreamble> to explain the status quo in Ghana.
*Why the president?*
Though it is Ghana's Parliament that would amend the act, the lawyer and
the presidential staffer who is our liaison has recommended we channel this
through the presidency instead.
The Chief of Staff is ready to receive this on the president's behalf
Sign the petition here
<https://www.change.org/p/h-e-nana-akufo-addo-please-introduce-freedom-of-panorama-in-ghana>
.
And while you are there, if you have questions, suggestions, concerns, even
typos to report, I'll gladly handle them before we print it out for
delivery.
––
Regards
Sandister Tei | Curator Media & Journalism, re:publica Accra | Citi
FM/TV | Wikimedia
Ghana UG representative + co – founder | Purple People
m: +23320266290 tw: @SandisterTei <https://twitter.com/SandisterTei> ig:
@s.andister <https://www.instagram.com/s.andister/>
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