Accra, March 19 GNA - Professor George Hagan, Chairman of the National Commission on Culture (NCC) on Thursday urged developers of software products to cooperate in their efforts to fight against pirating in the country.

He said the success of the fight against pirating depended on the commitment showed by the various developers of the product to unite and find common means of dealing with the problem. Prof. Hagan said this when officials of the National Anti- Piracy Committee on Literary Work and Software paid a courtesy call on him at his office in Accra.

The Committee led Mr Abednego Hlatshwayo, Licence Compliance Manager, West, East and Central Africa Region, to discuss with government officials who were involved in the enforcement of the Copy Right bill the challenges of Copy Right Protection in Ghana and how to address them.

Mr Hlatshwayo, also a representative of Microsoft South Africa, was in the country following an agreement signed by some Copyright societies in Africa in November to see to it that producers of intellectual properties benefit from their work

Prof Hagan stated that developers of software could maximise their returns when the fight against pirating became successful and said the Government was making frantic efforts to meet the international convention on pirating.

The Officials also visited the office of the Commissioner of the Custom Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS). Mr Gabriel Tagoe, Assistant Commissioner of CEPS in charge of Legal Issues, suggested to the Officials to educate the public on what constituted a pirated software to enable them differentiate between pirated software and legal software.

Earlier in the day, the Officials had paid courtesy calls on Papa Owusu Ankomah, Minister of Justice and Attorney General and Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kofi Boakye, Greater Accra Police Commander. 18 March 04