The Confederation of African Football [CAF] has lost the intellectual property rights lawsuit brought by Ghanaian music producer Kwabena Ofei-Kwadey Nkrumah, better known by his stage name Spiky.
Africa’s football governing body was found guilty on Wednesday, July 17 by a commercial court in Accra of not obtaining legal consent prior to utilizing Sipky’s song “Okomfo Anokye,” which features a beat, for promotional materials for the 2018 CAF awards.
The case was ruled over by Justice Emmanuel Loddoh, who granted damages to CAF in Ghana Cedis equal to USD 250,000 as well as GHS 40,000 for legal fees.
Spiky (born Kwabena Ofei-Kwadey Nkrumah) claims that the CAF’s action completely violated his intellectual property rights and cost him money because he was unable to obtain a license for the commercial use of his music.
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Prior to suing CAF, Spiky had criticized them in a number of tweets in 2029 for violating their copyright. He pointed out that despite CAF’s admission in an email that they had used his work without permission and their apology, they had not responded to him when he asked for payment.
The musical piece was “available online for free download without any restrictions or conditions, to use for the artwork posted on CAF’s social media platforms,” according to CAF, even though the organization acknowledged its failure to stop the offense.
Additionally, they denied using the music for business, pointing out that the CAF Awards were not a profitable endeavor. They went on to say that they apologized to Spiky and removed the work from their social media platforms.
