Plagiarism is a BIG Deal

It all starts when you steal meat from the soup pot and you are never caught. And even when you are caught, your parents do not hammer into your head, the gravity and enormity of your offence. They ultimately let it slide.

You start school and you don’t work hard towards your exams and you find yourself giraffing (a word I hate passionately). You are in luck; you never get caught. And when you are caught cheating in an internal exam, you may be asked to, as part of your punishment, weed a plot of land or scrub the toilets for a week. You may even be ridiculed by your colleagues. Not long after, you forget the stench and “maggotry”-not a real word-you had to deal with for a whole week.

You get your first “browsable” China phone. You sign on to multiple social networks: facebook, instagram, twitter. They boost your ego. You want to be impressive so you begin passing off other people’s work: quotes, anecdotes, jokes etc. as your own and nobody points it out to you. You are so conceited you don’t even realize where you are headed.

You have always had a passion for music or maybe you have always thought it was your express ticket to fame. You get a few gigs at +233 and your get a little fame. You like the taste of it. It’s intoxicating. You want to stay in the spotlight. You don’t want to come off as a fraud so you decide to release a song that will shake the very foundations of the Ghanaian music industry.

You find yourself in a Robin Thicke or Shia LaBeouf situation. And as usual, you are looking for an easy way out. Only this time you can’t have your cake and eat it. You stole someone’s intellectual property! It’s a big deal!

Even if you do not face the full rigours of the law, which I hope you do, you will lose all credibility and respect. You think because it is stealing from a budding artiste, you won’t be caught. Stealing is stealing, however you choose to look at it.

And if I were a lawyer, I’d take this case pro bono and sue your thieving ass (excuse my French).

It is not okay to plagiarize. 

For Ecxtreme Lyrical Wanzam (Wisam Hamza)

See the details of the issue that inspired this here   http://www.ghananewsreport.com/keche-steals-lyrical-wanzams-4-sheygey-reasons-song-and-title/