Daddy Lumba Arrests Pirate

Celebrated highlifer, Daddy Lumba has called on the general public to join the crusade against piracy. �The menace of piracy is fast killing the Ghanaian music industry�, he said. Lumba was interacting with journalists at a news conference held in Kumasi last week to announce the arrest of one person found to be pirating his new yet-to-be-released album, Kohye Po. His monitoring team, mainly a group of un-uniformed police officers, upon a tip-off arrested the culprit for copying his new album unto a blank compact disc.He said the culprit would soon be prosecuted and advised all those who were into similar business to refrain from that and also appealed to the general public to inform the police of any knowledge of persons who were into piracy. With 26 years experience as a musician, Lumba has been consistent with his album releases, the latest album being his 28th. He confirmed that he will perform on Christmas eve in Kumasi. Before then, he will be performing at the Centre for National Culture in Sunyani on Friday December 16. Coincidentally, one of Nigeria's most celebrated artists, 2Face Idibia has also called for action to stamp out piracy. "Piracy is still a very massive issue because there is no control in terms of producing the CDs and no barcodes�,he is quoted by CNN. Idibia is no stranger to the international scene and his music has won him a string of awards both at home and abroad. But while he has been recognized for his work, he feels that back home there is lack of respect for artists and that the police do not view piracy as a serious crime. "A policeman might be standing here, someone might be selling pirated copies over there and he wouldn't even look at it as though someone is committing a crime and he might even buy one!" he said. "They love the music, they want to listen to it, they dance to it, they buy the pirated copies, but the respect for the actual intellectual property is not there," he said. Only a decade ago, there were only one or two compact disc production plants. Today there are 28 in operation and the country has its own copyright commission, the Nigerian Copyright Commission. According to the latest Strategic Action Against Piracy report released in 2011 from the NCC, piracy of CDs, VCDs, DVDs cost just over $3. 5 million a year.