Help clamp down on pirated content —Ivan Quashigah to stakeholders

A MOVIE producer and director, Ivan Quashigah, has expressed concern about the surge in online movie piracy on illegal platforms, stressing the issue poses a risk with a likelihood of collapsing the movie industry.

The renowned producer also mentioned that there was a growing desire for investment in Ghana's film industry but that had been impeded by issues with content piracy.

Mr Quashigah was speaking in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the third Graphic Showbiz Forum on the theme, Future of Ghana Movie Industry: Bright or Bleak, which came off at the Multichoice Ghana head office on Tuesday, July 25, 2023.

He said it was time the relevant stakeholders, including regulatory bodies, made concerted efforts to give film industry stakeholders the ‘extra teeth’ in tackling individuals who manipulated intellectual properties of creative professionals, a move he hoped could further bolster investor confidence and protect jobs in the film industry.

“People have found a way to load our content on these platforms for free. Some of the contents we have on farmhouse movies, DStv, among others, where people were supposed to pay and watch are being downloaded and shown for free.

“Piracy of our content has a negative impact on our economy and our creative professionals' ability to make meaningful earnings. If investors perceive us as a country that has no regard for the protection of intellectual property, they may not have that confidence to come in to invest.

According to him, one key measure that could be taken to crack down piracy was to take legal action against offenders, while he also requested production houses and big broadcasting companies to join forces and pursue legal action against content pirates in the country.

“A giant like DStv should lead us the smaller production companies that are suffering from this piracy to take legal action. What we have to do now is to sue these platforms. When we start, maybe Nigeria could also join us because it is happening all over Africa.

“When they realise that this action will cost them a lot of money, they will begin to operate like the way YouTube does where you copyright your content and upload it on their site and when someone infringes, they take it down.

People have made it a routine to load our content on these unpaid platforms. Even when they are unable to get them, they even use their phones to record it against the screen and upload it just for bragging rights and followership on these illegal platforms.

“I have an app, famhouse movies, where I produce content for people to pay and watch. I spend a lot of money to put this together and others put it out there for people to watch for free, you are collapsing the market and then they will come back and tell us the movie industry is dead”, he said.