Police nab 32 for illegal sale of Jaliba’s music

[Len]

Gambia - Police have nabbed 32 people accused of illegally copying the original work of the Kora super star Jaliba Kuyateh – an action described as piracy in musical industry.

The police in collaboration with the National Center for Arts and Culture (NCAC) have discovered a foul play in the sale of Jaliba’s latest music which he launched and released in the market on Jan. 26, 2018.

The clampdown on the pirates came as a result of lead given to them by Jaliba Kuyateh himself.

Sheik Omar Jallow, director of Literature and Performing Arts at NCAC explained that Jaliba, as his normal practice, always release 5000 music CDs in the market after it is launched and within two months he always sell 3000 copies while the balance will be sold in another two months. But in contrast to this latest work of his, only 26 copies was sold since the release of the music titled ‘Koliliko’ and ‘Siikiline’

Investigation has revealed that many recording studios/stores were redoubling the original CD music for sale.

The arrest, according to Hassoum Ceesay, director of Copyright was as a result of tip-off received from the king of Kora himself, Jaliba Kuyateh.

He said since the release of the music, pirates have been enjoying the fruits from the labour of the musician whose music is playing at every nook and cranny of the country even beyond while he got nothing in return.

The Copyright director warns people to refrain from pirating other people’s work, saying; “the Copyright Law of 2004 forbids the copying of a book, cassette, CD, VCD, DVD, films, drawing without the permission of the copyright holder.”

“If anybody is caught in this act, he said, it is D50, 000 fine according to the Law of Copyright, therefore if you are an artist and your work is copied illegally, you are advised to report to NCAC or any nearest police station.”

However, the 32 arrested pirates which were to be charged to court of law were later released on Monday through the intervention of the complainant, Jaliba Kuyateh who begged for leniency to withdraw the charges against them.