The Copyright Office in collaboration with the Police and the Video and Film Producers Association of Ghana have arrested three persons believed to be behind locally produced pirated audio and audiovisual works.

The suspects, Joe Oreki, John Upkai and Dennis Opasi, who are all Nigerians, have since been remanded in Police custody by a Tema Circuit Court to reappear on August 15, 2007.

The hardest-hit this time are locally produced audiovisual works like Kyeiwaa 1,2,3 & 4, Prince Tyral, Beyoncé 1&2, Return of Beyoncé 1&2, Golden Stool, Asore Ba, Me Do 1&2, Big Dream 1&2, etc.

In an interview, the Tema Community One District Police Commander, Superintendent S.K. Tetteh said his outfit received information from some stakeholders that some people had pirated their works and were selling them at cheaper prices at the Community 1 market.

They therefore quickly mobilized their men and moved to the place and arrested the suspects, who had then displayed large quantities of pirated audiovisual works.

Mr. Bernard K. Bosomprah, the Copyright Administrator commended the Ghana Police Service for its support in clamping down pirates.

He said the anti-piracy exercise is now being carried out at night instead of the usual daytime because those who dealt in such pirated works had shifted their activities to night-time in order to outwit the Copyright Office taskforce.

Mr Bosomprah said three of such joint night anti-piracy operations, undertaken at the overhead bridge at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, the Kaneshie market, Santa Maria and Sukura, all in Accra, as well as the Tema Community 1 market, took the music and video pirates by surprise.

Mr. Bosomprah admitted that the Copyright Office had challenges but said in spite of the difficulties they were doing their best to sustain the exercise. He called on stakeholders and civil society to support the Copyright Office in the fight against pirates.

He reiterated the value of intellectual property and the need as a country to protect intellectual creativity.

He stated that though Ghana was yet to assess the copyright industry’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), countries that had carried out such studies indicated that the industry contributed about 10% to their GDP per annum, hence the need for all to support the efforts to protect the industry in Ghana.