Board secretary of the Audiovisual Rights Society of Ghana (ARSOG), Abeiku Sagoe has disclosed that hotels sued by the organization are pleading for out of court settlement.

The Audiovisual Rights Society of Ghana sued hotels and transport operators for non-payment of royalties.

Abeiku Sagoe told KMJ on Daybreak Hitz: "We have sent almost all of them to court and now they have started reacting, many of them have called that they have received their summons and all of them, want the case out of court…so I have directed them to our lawyer, Mr. John Lakai.”

Royalties to members

He also indicated that performers will receive their royalties directly from Audiovisual Society of Ghana unlike previous instances where producers were taking the money on behalf of performers.

“Yea, the reports we had was that they were not receiving it so we decided in 2015 that from 2016, performers will receive their monies directly. I use even myself as an example that I never received money from anybody.”

However, movie Producer Ola Michael, who is a member of the society, refuted the claim by Abeiku Sagoe that producers receive royalties from ARSOGon behalf of the artistes.

“He mentioned that for years, producers have been given performers’ money and that we are supposed to give it to them. I’m sorry that I don’t understand because nobody has ever given me money as a producer to give it to performers.”

According to him, “For five years our Blank Levy has been given to us with no controversy and was given to us because we are producers and authors…if anybody comes today and tells me that I have been given performers money that I'm supposed to give them, I’m sorry, I have not and no ARSOG member has been given any money, so wherever that money is they should go and find it.”

Meanwhile, a pundit on the prgrammme, Mel Kwasi Davis, hinted of plans to sue ARSOG, following the organisation's decision to sue hotels for royalties.

“When I saw the headline, my first reaction was to first sue ARSOG. You yourself we want to sue you, who are you going to sue? Which hotel? We want to sue them.”

“The reason why we want to sue ARSOG is because, almost six years they don’t have an interim board, secondly, they have an expired license, in fact the Attorney General must descend on them,” he added.