Ghanaian in NY admits selling fake CDs

A New York City man could face deportation to Ghana after pleading no contest to selling counterfeits at a Providence flea market.

PROVIDENCE -- Two months after a music industry group labeled Providence a "hot spot" for pirated music, a New York City man has been sentenced for selling pirated CDs and DVDs at a Valley Street flea market.

Sidikiba "Marcus" Magassouba, 47, of 2041 Fifth Ave., pleaded no contest Monday to two counts of selling or offering to sell forged or counterfeit DVDs and CDs, the attorney general's office said Friday.

Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini sentenced Magassouba to five years of probation plus a suspended five-year prison term. Based on the conviction, Magassouba is now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and might be deported to Ghana, the attorney general's office said.

"With the increasing sophistication of online piracy, people can tend to forget how big a problem piracy is on the street level," Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said. "Unfortunately, it's big business, accounting for billions of dollars a year."

Magassouba's no-contest plea concluded two cases. The first case resulted from a state police raid on a flea market at 500 Valley St. on Sept. 18, 2005. The state police, along with investigators from the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America, seized 1,216 pirated DVD movies and 185 pirated music CDs, the attorney general's office said.

The state police arrested Magassouba again on July 3 of this year at the same flea market and seized nearly 1,900 pirated DVDs and 200 pirated CDs, the attorney general's office said.

Based on the charges, Magassouba could have been sentenced to up to six years in prison. "But based on his lack of a criminal record and the fact that he could face deportation, we think this is a strong sentence," attorney general's spokesman Michael J. Healey said.

The Recording Industry Association of America, the Washington-based trade group for the largest labels, issued a news release Friday praising prosecutors for Magassouba's conviction.

"Whether in flea markets on street corners or in retail stores, the sale of counterfeit music takes a devastating toll on the labels, songwriters, artists and many other creators in our industry," said Brad Buckles, the association's executive vice president for anti-piracy. "Music retailers in Providence have been particularly hard hit by piracy, and convictions like this send a powerful message: This activity is illegal and will not go unchecked."

In May, the recording industry association identified Providence as one of 12 music theft hot spots that had "significant piracy problems from the manufacturer level all the way down to the point of retail sale." The other hot spot cities were Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Chicago; Dallas; Houston; Los Angeles; Miami; New York; Philadelphia; San Diego; and San Francisco.

The association vowed to "step up law enforcement training and commit additional investigative resources in all of these cities in the coming year." Spokeswoman Jenni Engebretsen said association investigators don't conduct raids but do assist local authorities by identifying pirated products.

Engebretsen said Providence was identified as a hot spot based on previous raids involving the association's investigators and based on market surveys. For example, the association found that in Providence "legitimate music sales in urban genres were about 5 percent below the national trend in 2005."

Urban and Latin music are the two genres hardest hit by piracy, and urban music -- including rap, hip-hop and rhythm and blues -- is the "crux of the piracy problem" in Providence, Engebretsen said. Urban piracy markets consist mostly of compilations of music from various artists.

Healey said many movies are pirated soon after they hit theaters. For example, he said an investigator from the Motion Picture Association of America bought a pirated DVD of the Disney movie Eight Below from Magassouba for $5 on Feb. 26 -- just nine days after the film was released in theaters.