Commercial vehicles and taxis cannot be charged to pay copyright fees by the Copyright Administration, because this is patently illegal and even unheard of.

This was the opinion expressed by pioneer music producer and founder of and spokesman of the Copyright Protection Committee, Mr Faisal Helwani, in reaction to a recent Joy FM radio programme.

During the programme, the Copyright Administrator, Mr Bernard Bosumprah, was alleged to have stated that commercial vehicles will be required to pay copyright fees.

Mr Helwani, talking to ?Spectator Arts? said, in the first place, neither the Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGA), has the power of attorney to collect royalties on behalf of foreign musicians.

He also noted that taxi and commercial drivers buy cassettes and the cost includes copyright fees.

?And if a commercial driver is playing music on the radio, then it is the radio station that is supposed to be paying royalties to composers. We should also not forget that the radio stations play songs to attract adverts out of which they make money and should therefore pay royalties,? he said.

?It goes for the television s too. They use the clips of artistes to popularize their station and tell the artistes that they are promoting them. This is a jive. They are denying the artistes of their performance rights, exhibition rights and recording fees which they are entitled to.?

Faisal bemoaned the fact that even where radio and TV stations paid royalties for both local and foreign music used, no dividend was distributed to foreign record companies, and this is so with the film industry too.

He said the Copyright office should be pre-occupied with these illegalities and redress them instead of thinking about commercial drivers.

He also called on the government to invite Copyright experts from England, USA, and the World Bank to advise on Ghana?s copyright Bill before it is passed into law.