FIPAG Admits Piracy Is A Problem

Asare Hackman

Steve Asare Hackman, President of the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG), has admitted that the production and sale of pirated movies are affecting the movie industry.

Though FIPAG has a taskforce responsible for fighting the act which is reported to be on the rise, Mr Hackman told NEWS-ONE that piracy is broader than what people think.

“We have an anti-piracy taskforce who occasional go round to arrest those who deal in the pirated Ghanaian movies. The issue with piracy is that it cannot be eradicated but you can only minimise it. Whiles  our producers are selling their CDs for let’s say GH¢5 or GH¢7, these pirates will be selling the same movie on DVD at a cheaper price, and with the current economic situation, people will prefer to buy the pirated one to the original ones,” he stated.

When the paper interacted with some Ghanaian movie producers, they noted that sales of movies had gone down because most people are only interested in pirating the movies rather than buying the original ones.

But the FIPAG boss explained that the association’s anti-piracy taskforce was working tirelessly to curb the issue.

According to him the taskforce, who works in collaboration with the police and FIPAG executives, is divided into two; one for the southern sector—who take care of Greater Accra, Western, Eastern and Volta Regions; and another for the northern sector—responsible for Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and the Northern Regions.

“In recent times, when these producers talk about piracy, it is not only about people remaking the CDs or DVDs for sale, but some people are now uploading the pirated  movies onto the internet whiles  others  are distributing them on pen drives. Piracy is broader than what people look at.  As it stands now, the sales of our movies on CDs and DVDs are going down so we at FIPAG are looking at another market like the internet. We are trying to create our own internet market so we can also sell our movies there as well,” he added.

Over the years, piracy has been considered   internationally as a crime which is punishable by law.