Copyright, CARE and African Music Archives: Tensions between Artists’ Interests and the Repatriation of Music

A short video with statements by participants of the international workshop “Copyright, CARE and African Music Archives: Tensions between Artists’ Interests and the Repatriation of Music”, is now available online. The statements sum up some of the central discussion points, questions raised and findings of the two-days-workshop in September 2022 at Johannes Gutenberg Universität-Mainz.

The video is available under this link: https://vimeo.com/mzjgumainz/ama

Organized by members of CEDITRAA, the African Music Archives, the University Library and the Academy of Sciences and Literature, all in Mainz, this workshop brought together archivists, scholars, lawmakers, lawyers, business people and musicians. Discussions focused on the tensions between scholars’ and artists’ interest in the accessibility of collections and the need to respect copyright laws. They also addressed questions of digital restitution or repatriation, as well as the ethical, legal and technical framework for making African music.

Topics included:

• How do we allow for an accessibility of our collections while at the same time respecting copyright laws?

• Is such an access already a digital restitution or repatriation, or does this take more?

• What kind of ethical, legal and technical framework does it take to make the music available?

• How do we apply CARE criteria for the AMA’s and other archives’ holdings and data?

• What would be the collective benefifit of such an availability?

• Which hegemonic aspects of research infrastructure between Africa, Europe and the Americas, but alsowithin Africa do we have to keep in mind?

Participants included

Dr. Adedeji Adewale, Performing and Film Arts Department, Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Nigeria

Prof. Dr. Christian Czychowski, Lawyer and Expert in technology-based Areas of Contract Law,

Prof. Dr. Mamadou Diawara, Director »Point Sud« Bamako, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Goethe University, Frankfurt/M,

Abdoul Aziz Dieng, President of the Comité permanent du Droit d’auteur et des Droits connexes de l’Organisation mondiale de la propriété intellectuelle, Dakar,

Lars Iking, Subject Librarian and Legal Expert, University Library, Mainz,

Prof. Dr. Martin Kretschmer, Director of CREATe Centre (School of Law), University of Glasgow,

Ulrike Luttenberger, Deutsches Historisches Institut Paris, Dakar,

Judith Opoku-Boateng, University of Ghana, Music Archive, President International Association of Sound Archives,

PD Dr. Dr. Grischka Petri, Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure, University of Karlsruhe, Prof. Dr. Alexander Peukert, Professor of Civil Law and Commercial Law, Goethe University Frankfurt/M,

Prof. Dr. Romuald Tchibozo, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin,

The workshop was organized by

Dr. Hauke Dorsch African Music Archives (AMA), JGU Mainz

Jonathan Gammert Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz

Dr. Marko Knepper Digital Library Services, University Library, JGU Mainz

Dr. Lisa Marie Roemer University Heritage Collections, University Library, JGU Mainz

Prof. Dr. Ute Röschenthaler CEDITRAA/Dept. of Anthropology and African Studies, JGU Mainz

Prof. Dr. Torsten Schrade Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz