Ghanaians have made piracy so attractive - Socrates Sarfo

Controversial movie producer, Socrates Sarfo, has for the umpteenth time complained about ‘piracy’ in Ghana’s movie industry.

Socrates told NEWS-ONE that even though piracy is considered a more serious crime than armed robbery in other countries, Ghanaians make the act look very beautiful and more attractive than armed robbery.

“Piracy is an old canker. In the first place, the TV stations showing our movies for free and piracy are the two main issues that are affecting the industry. As for piracy it is so beautiful now because we have made it so attractive. Pirates are not scared of engaging in the act again. It is more beautiful to be a pirate than to be an armed robber, even though piracy is more serious than armed robbery. We have made piracy so attractive, “the ‘Hot Fork’ producer stated.

According to him, the legal system in Ghana makes it very stressful to pursue piracy issues, which in a way encourages the act.

After the movie producers are done with the production phase and get the movie on CDs, these pirates make their own copies of the same movie and market them separately.

“Now when you catch a pirate and send him to the police station, the police will keep asking you to go and come till you get tired; then the pirate is granted bail and goes away. Since the pirates know this, they are somewhat encouraged to do the act. Even if by some miracle you get to court over the issue, there is also another delay: they will keep adjourning the case, and since we producers cannot keep up with the delay, they get tired and stop going to the court. Those who manage to pursue the case end up getting some few prison years for the pirate,” he added.

Socrates noted that Ghana needs to start seeing piracy as a serious crime, which is also a major ingredient responsible for killing the movie industry.

“To me, it is about time we treated piracy as a high crime and did something to the culprits; that will deter others from venturing into the act. Let’s treat pirates in such a way that their colleagues will advise themselves to quit the act because they are killing the industry, people’s investments are going down the drain and they are having a field day because we have given them so much room to operate,” he said.