16 Apr 2010

Police in American Samoa seek source of pirated videos

3:50 pm on 16 April 2010

The FBI and American Samoa's police are trying to trace who may be behind the production of a pirated music video.

A woman who was questioned for selling copies of a new music video by Samoan musician Felise Mikaele in Pago Pago was reportedly just a sales person.

Our correspondent, Monica Miller, says there is no legislation banning such piracy and it is up to the artists to lobby politicians to make new copyright laws so musicians can get an income from their work.

"This is the main complaint from artists is that they can't seem to make money because there's a lot of pirating. And also some of the stores that are selling some of this music, they say that they can't compete with these people that are doing this under the table operation."

Monica Miller says the musician involved hopes the case will make others think twice before duplicating music and videos.