GRi Arts & Culture Ghana 27 - 10 - 2000
Copyright Office expresses concern about piracy
Accra (Greater Accra) 27 Oct. 2000
The Copyright Office on Thursday
expressed concern about the resurgence of piracy in musical and literary works
in the country and announced the arrest of a number of culprits.
The activities of pirates do not
only have a negative impact on the revenue of the publishers but also that of
government, the authors and employees of the industry, it said.
At a press conference, Mr. Bernard
K. Bosumprah, Acting Copyright Administrator, said most of the arrests involved
course and textbooks used in basic, Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary
Schools.
Mr. Bosumprah said that recently
they found over 3,000 copies of finished and unfinished materials and plates
with one printing house - Bass Printing Works. The printer was arrested and
will soon be prosecuted.
"The quantum of the present
seizures runs into hundreds of millions of cedis and more because many
activities of pirates have escaped detection."
He said the office is constrained
in terms of finances and logistics to assist the Copyright Monitory Unit to
monitor and undertake anti-piracy activities and appealed to the public to help
in the crusade.
He urged parliament to expedite
action on the passage of the new Copyright Bill to help curb the situation.
Mr. Eric Ofei, Managing Director
of Afram Publications Ghana Limited, said, "persons who create works
should expect to live from their works. But when piracy sets in, all is lost to
all the stakeholders in the industry."
He said the public should be
educated that it is an offence to reproduce by any means any copyrighted
material for commercial purposes.
He said printers and booksellers
who connive and condone in this unprofessional practice must be equated to fake
currency printers and must be punished as such.
GRi../