The Bureau of Ghana Languages, as part of its operation to stop piracy of their books on the market, has dragged Catholic Bookshop and two others to court for pirating three of their Akan books—“Se Ebewie”, “Me Wobika” and “Afrakuma”.
The two, John Abraham, 36, and Eric Amankwah, both traders first appeared in court on Friday and pleaded not guilty to the charges of distributing someone’s work by way of sale without authority contrary to the Section 42 (1) (c) of the copy Right Act 2006 (Act 600) and abetment of crime under the Copy Right Act.
The operation commenced on 6 November 2018, when Mr. Lawer, a volunteer for Bureau of Ghana Languages), went to Catholic Bookshop where Eric Amankwah worked and purchased two of the above-mentioned books each and receipt issued.
Some days later, Lawer went back to the bookshop and purchased 20 copies each of the same books and again Amankwah issued a receipt to that effect. Lawer and Mr. Prince Yawson (Bureau of Ghana Languages Board member & ambassador) as part of the anti-piracy campaign then reported the case to the Police.
Yawson then went further to disclose that the books were supplied to him (Amankwah) by Abraham Enterprise at K.O in Kumasi which belongs to Abraham and led the Police to cause the arrest of Amankwah. Later, further search was conducted in his (Abraham’s) shop and jt was revealed that four copies of “Me Wobika”, 171 copies of “Afrakuma” and 191 “Se Ebewie” were available.
During Police investigation, they all admitted to the offence in their caution statements. Abraham said a guy called Kobee supplied him with the books but could not lead the Police to arrest him. After investigations, they were charged with the offence and arraigned for prosecution. There have been two court sittings and the third is set to be on 10th January 2019.
submitted (Oswald Okaitei)