Spiky: Ghanaian Music Producer Sues CAF For Using His Beat Without Permission

• Music producer and Tech analyst Spiky has dragged the Confedration of African Football (CAF) to court
• Spiky has instituted the court action against CAF over an alleged usage of his music beat for promotional purposes without his permission
• In his suit, Spiky is seeking the court grant him reliefs including a compensation from CAF for infringing on his copyright

Ghanaian music producer Spiky Beatz, known in private life as Kwabena Ofei-Kwadey Nkrumah, has filed a lawsuit against the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

In the suit filed at the Commercial Division of the Accra High Court, Spiky is claiming that CAF had infringed on his copyright over a beat he made and wants compensation.

According to the court documents available to YEN.com.gh, CAF used Spiky's work, titled Okomfo Anokye, to promote the 2018 CAF Awards without recourse to him.

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For this failure to obtain his permission, Spiky deems CAF to have plagiarised, appropriated and infringed on the producer’s copyright when they failed to acknowledge him as the owner.

“The Plaintiff asserts that, the Defendants’ conduct was in blatant disrespect and disregard for Plaintiff’s proprietary rights in his music and a flagrant and brazen infringement of Plaintiff’s copyright which said acts of Defendants, has caused Plaintiff loss of substantial revenue from any licensing of his music for commercial use,” parts of the documents read.

Spiky's suit seeks the court to issue:

"A declaration that by boldly using Plaintiff’s “SPIKY – OKOMFO ANOKYE” beat/instrumental music for commercial purposes without Plaintiff’s prior consent, Defendant has flagrantly and brazenly infringed on Plaintiff’s Copyright.”

The suit prays the court to order CAF “to account for profit for the commercial use of Plaintiff’s copyrighted work” and also “general damages for the infringement of the Plaintiffs’ copyright by the unauthorized commercial use of the Plaintiff’s “SPIKY – OKOMFO ANOKYE” beat/instrumental music and failure to name Plaintiff as the Copyright owner on the infringing materials and the abuse of Plaintiff’s human rights.”

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CAF's response

Following Spiky's suit, CAF has entered conditional appearance which is dated August 11, 2022.

In its statement of defence, CAF denied:

"...Every allegation contained in the Plaintiff's statement of claim as if same were set out in extenso and denied seriatim."

However, CAF admitted that the musical beat and artwork of Spiky were uploaded on its social media platforms because it was available for free download but were pulled down within 24 hours after their attention was drawn to it.

CAF also denied using the soundtrack for commercial purposes, as the awards were a non-profit event and thus argued that the plaintiff was not entitled to any of the reliefs stated in his suit.

The genesis of Spiky and CAF's issue

Spiky's lawsuit against CAF comes three years after the alleged copyright infringement. At the time, he took to social media to call CAF for copyright infringement.

In numerous tweets, the music producer who doubles as Tech analyst lamented over the use of his work with permission.

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Source: YEN.com.gh