Kwabena Ofei-Kwadey Nkrumah vrs Confederation Africaine De Football

Kwabena Ofei-Kwadey Nkrumah vrs Confederation Africaine De Football

Our client (Kwabena Ofei-Kwadey Nkrumah also known as ‘Spiky’) created a beat/instrumental titled “Okomfo Anokye” which he uploaded on his Youtube channel and SoundCloud account. The Defendant organisation downloaded our client’s work, adapted it and utilized it as the background sound of an artwork which it posted on social media to promote the 2018 CAF Awards. All this occurred without our client’s consent.

Our client instituted an action against the Defendant for copyright infringement and resulting damages. Although the Defendant admitted to using our client’s work without his permission, it alleged that its use of our client’s work was not for commercial purposes and constituted permitted use under section 19(1) of the Copyright Act, 2005 (Act 690)

The court found that the Defendant infringed on our client’s copyright and that the use of our client’s work to promote the 2018 CAF Awards could not amount to permitted use. Our client was awarded damages of $250,000.