Nigerian Grabbed For Dealing In Pirated Works

The Ashaiman Police on Wednesday arrested Aaya Solutions, a 28-year-old Nigerian believed to be behind locally produced pirated audio and audiovisual works. The suspect, currently on police enquiry bail, is assisting the police in its investigation to track down his agents who the suspect claimed he bought the pirated works from. In the process of his arrest, a large quantity of pirated works made up of CDs, and VCDs of local music and music videos were retrieved. The local works included different album titles, both video and audio, and special compilations of artistes such as K.K. Fosu, Kojo Antwi, Ofori Amponsah, Daddy Lumba, Daasebre, Ohemaa Mercy, Lord Kenya, and Sidney among others. The inlays of most of the local works found were scanned together with the adhesive labels. The outlook of the works therefore to a layman on the street appeared to be genuine works. In a brief statement, the Ashaiman Police District Commander, Superintendent Frank Awu expressed disappointment at the increasing rate at which certain unscrupulous persons stole copyright works, reproduced and sold them at reduced prices at the expense of the rightful owners. He intimated that the police would do all they could to encourage creativity and warned the perpetrators to desist from such acts. Mrs Theresa Mensah, aka Mama Big of Big Ben Music Productions, told the Ashaiman Police that the activities of pirates had deprived many composers, performers and their producers the right to enjoy the fruits of their labour with the resultant premature deaths of many. She bemoaned the influx of pirated works and improper importation of copyright works into the country through unapproved entry points. On her part, Mrs Doris Boateng of Shepherd Music Productions said the task of combating piracy was too much for the law enforcement agencies alone to carry out without the support and involvement of intellectual property owners whose rights were being infringed upon. Mrs Boateng, who expressed surprise at the large quantities of copyright materials seized from the suspect, said the pirates were killing producers softly, adding, “The cost of music production is over thousands of Ghana cedis. It is difficult for any music producer to break even today as a result of piracy.”