Sixteen in court for selling pirated works

Accra, Oct. 11, GNA - Sixteen persons, who were arrested last week for selling and displaying pirated works, on Wednesday made their second appearance at an Accra Circuit Court.

The accused persons have pleaded not guilty to selling and distributing copyright works without licence or authorisation. The Court admitted them to 60 million cedis bail with a surety each to reappear on November 8.


The case of Prosecution was that on October 4, a joint team of the Police and officers from the Copyright Office in Accra mounted an exercise to clamp down vendors of pirated VCDs, CDs, audio and video works.


The Copyright Office had since about six months ago mounted an educational campaign against the sale and purchase of pirated works on both electronic and print media.

During the exercise, the accused persons were found to have displayed pirated works and they were arrested. Some of the accused persons said they acquired some of the works from legitimate sources, while others claimed they had theirs from illegal reproducers.


Some of the accused persons claimed they purchased the works from Togo.