20-footer Container Of Pirated Movies Seized

The Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, (CEPS) has intercepted a 20-footer container of pirated movies imported from the United States of America last week.

The container which is currently in a warehouse in Tema, according to Socrate Sarfo, Public Relations Officer for the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG), contains thousands of pirated Ghanaian and Nigerian films.

The FIPAG PRO told Myjoyonline.com that sometimes movie producers do sell rights to their movies to production outfits in the US to produce the movies for the US market. Unfortunately, he said, certain unscrupulous people pirate these movies for sale at the expense of the rightful producers.

Socrate was however delighted that after a couple of meetings with CEPS, they have lifted up their game to help fight the piracy menace which is depriving producers from reaping rewards for their works.

Personalities in the movie industry, according to Socrate, have been invited by CEPS to access the pirated movies which he said have been well packaged. He hinted that investigations will be conducted to unearth the ring behind the pirated movies.

In another development, executives of the Ghana movie industry met with a Deputy Minister of Information, Baba Jamal, Friday to discuss a wide range of issues affecting the industry.

Top on the agenda was the Preview and Classification committee of the Cinematography Board's announcement that classification of movies from next year will be priced at GHS150 from GHS50.

The executives called on the government to make the system an effective one to help clear unclassified films from the market. Meanwhile, a second meeting has been scheduled within the next two weeks to discuss the long overdue Film Bill.

Source: Myjoyonline.com