Cape Coast, (Central Region) 9, Sept. The Fetu Afahye Planning Committee of the Oguaa Traditional Council is contemplating instituting a legal action against Cape Coast Central FM, a local radio station, and two breweries for copyright infringement. The infringement involves sponsorship and publicity for the just-ended Fetu Afahye festival. The committee accused Central FM of flouting an official agreement which designated it the official radio station charged with publicity and colluding with certain brewery companies to infringe on the copyright for sponsorship. The Vice-Chairman of the committee, Mr Zac Bentum, told the GRi in an interview on Sunday that the Afahye planning committee franchised its copyright to the Achimota Brewery Company (ABC), which sponsored the whole Afahye programme “for a colossal sum of money”. Mr Bentum said in line with the agreement reached between the Oguaa Traditional Council and the Management of GBC in Accra late August, Cape Coast Central FM was appointed the official radio station responsible for advertising and publicising all events and programmes of the festival. He said on Tuesday night, the committee received reports that the station was publicising competitive programmes sponsored by breweries other than ABC – the official sponsor for the festival. The committee promptly wrote to the station, reminding it that the whole festival had been enfranchised to ABC and that the station’s action as well as those of the breweries concerned amounted to copyright infringement. Mr Bentum said after the radio station had received a letter from the committee’s solicitor, asking them to stop promoting competitive events as if they were part of the official Afahye programme, Central FM stopped advertising the festival’s programmes altogether but Central FM stepped up publicity for programmes sponsored by the two breweries – Accra Brewery Limited and Guinness Ghana Limited. “The net result of their action is that the official programmes for the festival – those organised by the Afahye planning committee – were not patronised. People simply did not know about our programmes, while other private events were advertised as if they were part of the festival programme. “We have lost as much as 20 million cedis, and the Committee is thinking about taking legal action against Central FM and those breweries which infringed on our copyright for the recovery of the financial losses so far incurred. Mr Bentum said, for example, that when highlife superstar Amakye Dede was engaged to perform at Cape Coast Town Hall on Thursday, Central FM refused to publicise the event but instead launched an intensive campaign for a competitive programme at Oyster Bay Hotel. “We paid Amakye Dede two million cedis for that programme, but there were only 51 people at the Town Hall, and our total gate receipts was only 153,000 cedis. That was the fate of virtually all our programmes. “They were poorly patronised for lack of publicity and those unaccredited breweries, which took undue advantage of our traditional festival to promote and sell their products, have, with the connivance of Central FM, infringed our copyright”, Mr Bentum said.
