US Firm Joins FIPAG To Fight Piracy

A US firm, African Movies on the GO LLC (AMGO), has confirmed its new partnership with the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG) to fight movie piracy in the country and beyond using a software application.

FIPAG President Steve Asare Hackman told NEWS-ONE that the partnership would protect intellectual property of film producers and reward creativity in the African movie industry.

Asare Hackman said the AMGO LLC's local office in Ghana, AMGO Ghana, had developed a Video on Demand (VOD) mobile application that could enable users stream African movies online.

'AMGO Ghana will upload our films onto a mobile application and once a user watches online, he or she would be charged something small for data. With that, a   certain percentage would be given to the producers as well,' Mr Hackman told NEWS-ONE.

He said though people can watch Ghanaian movies using the VOD application on their smart phones, the movies cannot be downloaded.

'FIPAG will support any initiative that will bring positive growth and prosperity to the industry and especially to the film producer. In this era of advanced technology where entertainment has been placed on digital platforms, there is the need for us as producers to look, seek and find innovative ways to distribute, sell and market our films for better results.

'This is why we embrace AMGO’S initiative on VOD platform. We have been in talks with AMGO since last year. This is a new system they have brought to Ghana. For now we have agreed in principle to work with them. But we are yet to sign an MoU with them,' he added.

He explained further: 'For this partnership to grow, both parties need to actively engage to ensure transparency in dealing with matters or issues. Transparency should be the hallmark of this alliance with FIPAG and the producers, if this partnership will stand the test of time. Film producers in this country have been at the receiving end for far too long. Let me take this opportunity on behalf of the family of FIPAG to express our gratitude to the owners of AMGO and their staff for this initiative; and we look forward to a fruitful business.'

For some time now, the production and sale of pirated movies has been a major problem for FIPAG as culprits devise new techniques each day to pirate movies.

AMGO would provide a straightforward approach for movie producers to premiere and distribute their movies by offering them world-class robust data protection of content and a one-stop global platform to market their new releases.

However, Nana Osei Aboagye, Chief Executive of AMGO Ghana, said though the VOD space in Africa is rapidly emerging with its aim of providing some additional revenue to movie producers, piracy still persists because the continent lacks movie theatres that will enable producers to release movies in a single fashion across it.

'Thus, after movie premieres, production houses resort to DVDs and VCDs. This weak distribution channel has created fertile grounds for piracy merchants to plague the film industry. Since distribution is the key to commercial success of any newly released film, AMGO will be taking the fight to the very heart of piracy via encrypted mobile distribution,' he noted.

By Nii Ogbamey Tetteh
( [email protected] )