The Copyright Monitoring Team (CMT) of the Copyright Office of Ghana has announced a national operation to crackdown, arrest and see to the prosecution of all television station owners and managers who air movies for commercial purposes without the expressly granted permission of the rights holders.
The CMT, fortified by Act 690 of the Copyright Act, 2005 is embarking on the operation in collaboration with the Ghana Police Service and television station operators and owners found guilty by court of showing movie content for commercial purposes without prior permission could face summary conviction up to a six-month jail term, a fine or both.
Apart from the fine and or jail the law also permits the CMT to seize transmission equipment of television stations caught in the act of airing pirated content whether or not the said content is registered
Sub section 3 of Article 12 if the Copyright Act 690, 2005 says:“ … members of the monitoring team may enter premises where the members of the team suspect that commercial transactions in pirated works or works which are not protected or do not have security device affixed to them are taking place, about to take place or likely to take place and may search and seize any work to which the transaction relates.”
An official statement from the CMT read:
COPYRIGHT MONITORING TEAM (CMT) TAKING ACTION AGAINST TELEVISION STATIONS VIOLATING COPYRIGHT ACT, 2005 (ACT 690)
The Copyright Office has observed with great concern, that some broadcasting stations have been showing movies without obtaining authorization from the rightsholders of those movies. In response to this development, the Copyright Office issued a Press Statement in June this year to caution television stations against this practice. However, this infringement persists.
The Office has therefore begun taking punitive action against television stations that are violating the Copyright Act, 2005 (Act 690). In line with this, the Copyright Monitoring Team (CMT) in collaboration with the Ghana Police Service is conducting enforcement activities to deal with television stations infringing on the rights of filmmakers in accordance with the law.
The Copyright Office wishes to call on all rights holders in the audiovisual industry to report any form of unauthorized use of their movies by television stations to the Copyright Office for action to be taken against such stations. Rights holders of audiovisual contents are also advised to provide evidence (photos and short videos) that will constitute enough proof of infringement.
We also wish to assure rights holders that the Copyright Office remains committed to the fight against all forms of copyright infringement and is working in collaboration with all relevant institutions to ensure that rights holders’ interests are duly protected.
We count on the cooperation of all players in the copyright industry on this matter.
For any enquiries and further clarifications, kindly call 0242571982.
Samuel Awuku Gyeketey
PRO/Member, CMT
For: Chairman, CMT
