Parliament asked to expedite action on copyright bill

Accra, Sept 24, GNA- Members of the Copyrights Society of Ghana (COSGA) on Wednesday appealed to Parliament to expedite action on the passage of the copyright bill to protect their works from pirates. Mr Mamah Gado Mohammed, President of Film Producers Association described the audio-visual industry as being under siege, with the piracy of works on the ascendancy.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, Mr Mohammed said the various stakeholders in literary works and audio-visual industry "have had enough of piracy, enough is enough. Efforts should be made to arrest people who continue to pirate our works, thereby taking us out of job".

He said the film industry in Ghana has over 42 producers but the number has decreased to only six "due to the acts of pirates, who continue to pirate work of productions to enrich themselves at our expense".

He said due to the rate of piracy, the Association met with Video Rental Clubs and agreed that such clubs register with COSGA. He regretted that certain people are asking the clubs not to register as we agreed upon.

Mr Mohammed however warned that any club who failed to comply with the terms agreed upon would be closed down.

"It is a big war we are fighting and we shall fight till we win because we have the law behind us", he said.

Alhaji Sidiku Buari, Chairman of COSGA and President of MUSIGA said it was unfortunate that some "big people in the society are promoting piracy by asking people not to buy Gammogram", a seal designed to protect works of Ghanaian musicians.

Alhaji Buari said those people who are doing that are abusing the law because they are encouraging people not to pay taxes, adding that the Gammogram is not being run by a private company as being alleged, but by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Mrs Mary Asirifi, a member of COSGA and Managing Director of All Good Books Limited said book publishing industry is also suffering the same fate, saying, "our books are being pirated and are being sold at cheaper prices, leaving ours on shelves to gather dust. "We are now operating at a greater loss at the expense of pirates who are feeding on our brains and hard work, piracy will kill us," she said.