Bessa Simons
A veteran highlife musician and an aspiring president of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Bessa Simons, has revealed that when elected the president of the union, he will put in place policies that will help reduce the increasing rate of music piracy in the country.
According to him, Ghana’s music industry has been on the decline over the last decade due to the negligence of laws that have to check the activities of those behind music piracy.
The musician said that if severe measures were not taken to curb the current spate of piracy, the music industry would collapse in no time.
The aspiring MUSIGA president, who described pirates as criminals, explained that because the pirates do not incur high cost as the musicians and producers, they tend to sell the pirated musical works cheaper in the open market.
He, however, called for an effective legal system in the country to deal with offenders.
He stressed that though the Copyright Office was doing all it could to fight piracy, he believes that the active involvement of MUSIGA in the anti-piracy campaign could bring the activities of the pirates to an end.
Bessa Simons who is also the current first vice-president of the union said copyright gave the musicians and producers control and power over their music, but he was quick to state that more was needed to be done in order to effectively battle the piracy menace.
He indicated that many music production houses had collapsed while individual investors have had their investments go down the drain due to piracy.
By George Clifford Owusu