The Adjabeng District Magistrate court in Accra has sentenced one Wisdom Banini, believed to be in his 20s, to two years’ imprisonment for duplicating and reproducing copyright audio visual works without authority.
The culprit was arrested in February this year during an antipiracy swoop by Ghana Police Service in collaboration with Film Distributors Association of Ghana and Film Regulatory Board of Ghana.
He was last week arraigned and found guilty after hearing.
Months ago, the Film Distributors Association of Ghana, in collaboration with Film Regulatory Board of Ghana, issued a directive to start clamping down on operators of video rental shops in Ghana.
The various movie associations sent out words of caution on an antipiracy war to reduce the rate at which some unscrupulous persons were pirating local movies.
Their call was under the theme; ‘War on Piracy’.
The association stated categorically that 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 contravened the Copyright Law, Act 6: 90.
They added that they would be working hard to make sure they achieved their aim in the anti-piracy campaign.
They are now strengthened with special taskforces from the national security quarters of Government.