As part of activities to reduce the increasing rate of piracy in the country, the Copyright Administrator, Berbard K Bosumprah, has hinted that his outfit is working tireless to arrest and prosecute all those involved.

He said piracy does not only affect stakeholders in both music and movie industries of their expected revenue, but significantly tampers with the quality of their products, thereby causing public disaffection against them.

He emphasized that though his outfit was doing all it could to fight piracy, what he requires most in order to be successful in their bid is a massive support from the stakeholders.

Bernard K. Bosumprah also warned that his outfit would also prosecute anybody caught extorting monies from unsuspecting video and audio CD dealers under the pretext of giving them the mandate to freely exhibit copyright works, including pirated copyright works, both local and foreign, on the market.

In a statement signed and issued in Accra, the copyright boss stated that infringing copyright protected works is criminal and punishable by law, under the copyright Act 205, Act 690.

He noted that Section 43 of the Copyright Act of 200, Act 690 also states as follows:

A person who infringes a right protected under this Act commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than one thousand penalty units and not less than five hundred penalty units, or to a term of imprisonment of not more than three years, or to both; and in the case of a continuing offence, a further fine of not less than twenty-five penalty units and not more than one hundred penalty units for each day during which the offence continues.

The attention of the general public is hereby drawn to the issues mentioned above, to desist from patronizing any such illegal businesses.