Stakeholders To Wage War Against Music And Film Pirates

Stakeholders in both the movie and music industries have threatened to embark on a massive anti-piracy campaign to arrest all those dealing in pirated movies and musical works in the country.

According to the stakeholders, piracy, which was not only affecting the financial value of Ghanaian musicians negatively, had remained an unresolved problem which had eaten deep into the fabric of Ghanaian music and film industries.

They revealed that ongoing anti piracy activities had resulted in the arrest of six Nigerians and four Ghanaians who had been sent to the Circuit Court in Aflao in the Volta Region.

The National Secretary of the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG), Stanley Sackey, told BEATWAVES that his association and the Film Regulatory Board (FRB) had shown interest in the case pending before the Circuit Court and had decided to follow the case until its determination.

“Although the case has been adjourned three times we still believe that there would be justice at the end of the trial,” he said.

Stanley Sackey, who is also a board member of the Audio-Visual Rights Society of Ghana (ARSOG) and a member of the National Monitoring Team, noted that the works of pirates had affected stakeholders in the music and movie industry.

“Both music and film producers have suffered and continue to suffer at the hands of pirates who are virtually having a field day”, he stated, adding, “today, these undesirable elements have completely taken over the music and film industry in Ghana through the establishment of a mafia clique at some secret locations in some parts of the country where they operate freely”.

It is also evident that the traditional and cultural practices of this country are being adulterated because of the influx of uncensored foreign movies.

“Considering the long list of victims of piracy, most of the stakeholders have decided to be watchdogs over their productions, spending huge sums of money on their monitoring teams to check the activities of pirates,” he noted.

Stanley Sackey indicated that the creative industry was dying as a result of the nefarious activities of pirates.

He warned that anybody who dealt in pirated musical works or movies would be arrested and prosecuted since piracy was against the laws of the land, adding that all those selling ten-in-one CDs were also violating the copyright law.

He however disclosed that the stakeholders were working tirelessly to introduce a security device to protect the original works from the ones that had been pirated.