'We have rights to designs': interrogating design pirating on the Ghanaian textiles market. Issue 1 (2nd January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Darku, Esther N. D.; Lubisi, Nombulelo
• Is Part Of: Journal of legal pluralism and unofficial law. Volume 52:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 28
• Page End: 45
• Publication Date: 2020-01-02
• Subjects: Textile industry -- Ghana -- copyright -- piracy -- cultural norms -- law and morality; Legal polycentricity -- Periodicals; Customary law -- Periodicals; Ethnological jurisprudence -- Periodicals; 340.505
• DOI: 10.1080/07329113.2019.1700449
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0732-9113

Abstract

Abstract: This paper examines the challenges of copyright implementation in the Ghanaian textile market. Specifically, the paper looks at the challenges of administering copyright law in an informal market structure governed by both cultural norms and legal precepts. Using qualitative data collected from interviews and documents, this paper argues that copyright laws do not adequately take into account the normative systems that govern the production of textile as a cultural good. Therefore, challenges faced by the state to regulate piracy in the textile market exist because of the gap between formal legal provisions for conducting business and informal norms and market practices. The paper concludes that the copyright law in its current form does not address the normative practices at the core of trading textiles and that piracy can be effectively controlled if copyright laws incorporate cultural ideas and definition of design, authorship and ownership in the textile industry.