The Managing Director of Afram Publications (Ghana) Limited, Harriet Adelaide Tagoe, has cautioned students of Senior High Schools against purchasing fake “La Famille Ntow” and “L’argent ne Fait pas le Bonheur” French Textbooks on the market.
The pirated books sold in bookshops and some senior high schools and originally by Afram Publications, she said, were overpriced on the markets and full of mistakes, a situation that could mislead students in their strive for success during their final examination and in their lifetime as far as French was concerned.
She said the pirated copies were also with poor quality printing and served as a threat to the hard-earned reputation of Afram Publications, a situation that also affected its ability to make sales as an educative and profit-making entity.
“This is somebody’s intellectual property we are holding in trust and so when you do that, the author loses revenue. We pay for the author’s inputs in it by paying royalties. So, the author loses out when no royalties go to him or her.
“Developments of the book and the investments we’ve made, we lose out because content development entails a lot of money. We’ve invested and taken all the risks, and they are just printing out and not paying for anything. So, the author gets nothing, we are losing investments and students are getting wrong information in the fake books,” she lamented.
Ms Tagoe warned the brains behind the pirated copies to be vigilant and cautious with the copyright infringement journey they were embarking on, as her office had commenced a strict investigation with the Copyright Office and would stop at nothing to let the law deal with them if apprehended.
The Managing Director explained to the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the original “L’argent ne Fait pas le Bonheur” book authored by Margaret Kwakwa, had a hologram sticker with a display of the Afram Publications’ stool in the middle, while the pirated copy had none.
Moreover, the back of the book has a ‘blue’ colour and the original “La Famille Ntow” book authored by Enyonam Keteku, has a better aesthetic appeal.
She said the Afram Publication together with its distribution partner, the Regional Centres for the Teaching of French (CREF- Ghana) found that some senior high schools within the Greater Accra region were selling the pirated copies to students with significant mistakes and inflated prices.
This step, she said was unacceptable and against the company’s copyright and expressed a shock at how a pirated and less quality copy could cost more than an original copy.
“We want to warn the students that the book with the green cover in the markets is fake publications. So just look for the book with the hologram and blue cover,” she added.
The Afram Publications (Ghana) Limited with over five decades of experience, is Ghana’s foremost largest and most reputable indigenous book-publishing house.
Its influence is particularly significant in Ghanaian literature and educational textbooks tailored for Ghanaian schools. It is recognised as a specialist in producing materials for pre-school, basic, senior high and tertiary level education.
It is also known for publishing popular books like Afrakoma (The Warrior Princess), Tahinta, Voice in the Forest, The Crows and Other Plays, Edufa, Grandma and other stories, Return of No Return and other Poems, Trinity High Big Changes, Trinity High Students in Crime, Uncle Blanko’s Chair, Voice in the Forest.
Others are Adaku at the Homowo Festival, The Adventures of Asuom, Adventures of Elizabeth Sam, African Drum Music, African Girl, African Pianism, Asana, Bukom, Cape Coast Castle, Death at the Voyager Hotel, Ethnomusicology and African Music, Fate’s Promise, the God’s Daughter, Home At Last and The Incredible Adventures of Wapi.
Source: GNA
