Film Distributors Association of Ghana, in collaboration with Film Regulatory Board of Ghana, has issued a directive to start clamping down on operators of video rental shops in Ghana.

This is part of the association’s ongoing antipiracy war to reduce the rate at which some unscrupulous persons are taking the law into their hands to pirate local movies.

At a press conference last week Thursday Maxlot Hotel in Accra, under the theme ‘War On Piracy’, the association said its members had not granted any video rental shop the right to rent their movies. As a result, any video rental shop that rented local movies was in contravention of Copyright Law, Act 6: 90.

The association will as such deal with the rental shop’s operators as the law demands. The antipiracy operation will be carried out by a special taskforce, assisted by national security forces in coming weeks.

The war is expected to also affect other sectors of the entertainment industry including persons who pirate movies on the internet, and dealers of ten-in-one pirated African movies. However, members of the association were reluctant to disclose techniques they would use in executing their antipiracy campaign.

Speaking at the antipiracy conference, old time producer of Hacky Films and president of the association, Asare Hackman, said piracy had been a canker for so many years. “We can only prevent it. Imagine a producer spends GH¢60,000 to produce a movie and he can’t get GH¢20,000. Pirates just sit in the comfort of their rooms, rip the movies and go to offices to sell and make money while we lack,” he lamented.

He also called on the general public to support their course by reporting individuals engaging in piracy activities. According to him, the association would make sure that the identity of whistle blowers was well protected.

He emphasized that the association would make sure that the right thing was done and that individuals should be mindful because they would not favour anybody.

He maintained that the loss they incurred as a result of piracy also affected the general economy; hence everybody should join the war on piracy campaign. At the ceremony were Socrates Sarfo, John Issa, Malik Maduakor and Mustapha Adams.