Posted by By Bekai Njie
Effective 5 August 2019, no person shall engage in reproduction or recording of Islamic sermons of late Oustas Omar Bun Jeng for commercial purposes without permission, according to the Copyright Office, under the National Centre for Arts and Culture.
“Attention of this Office has been drawn to certain section of the public engages in reproduction and commercialisation of sermons of the late Oustas Bun Jeng without permission or authorisation, which violates Copyright Ownership of the said products as provided in Section 15 of the 2004 Copyright Act of The Gambia,” a news release stated.
The late renowned Islamic scholar conducted most of these sermons while under the employment of The Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS-Radio), as per Section 11 (1)(a-c) of the cited 2004 Copyright Act, Cap 96;01 Volume 15, Laws of The Gambia.
This section provided for employed authors and that the Copyright work(s) of such person(s) shall vest in an employer or person(s) who commissioned the work(s) of the employed author, the missive added.
“As such, any person(s) interested in the reproduction and sale of works of the cited well respected Islamic scholar for commercial gains, must contact GRTS for permission as per the cited law, failure of which shall amount to violation of Copyright owners (GRTS and heirs of the late Islamic scholar), who are entitled to succeed his economic and moral rights as per sections 9 and 10 of the said Copyright Act, Laws of The Gambia.”