Stakeholders deliberate on piracy

Participants expressed fear and frustration at the rate of privacy, which they said could destroy the entire Nigerian entertainment industry.According to them, piracy is a problem facing filmmakers which has hindered the development in Nollywood, since potential investors are scared to operate in the industry. Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, the founder and CEO of the African Movie […]

Participants expressed fear and frustration at the rate of privacy, which they said could destroy the entire Nigerian entertainment industry.According to them, piracy is a problem facing filmmakers which has hindered the development in Nollywood, since potential investors are scared to operate in the industry.

Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, the founder and CEO of the African Movie Academy Awards(AMAA) observed that “piracy is not only perpetrated from within Nigeria, but from outside as there are pirated films coming from China and other parts of the world, which just manage to escape the watch of customs agents at the borders”.

 According to her, pirated Nollywood films from China are sold in countries like Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Angola without any returns to the copyright owners; and the pirates are brave enough to bring them into Nigeria against all odds.

Emeka Ogbonna, zonal, the manager of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), said that the government was not adequately funding the NCC towards putting up an effective fight against piracy. Despite those challenges, he said the Commission was doing everything possible to stem the tide of piracy, even as the NCC has no legal standing to be at the border posts, and so rely on the Nigeria Customs Service and the Standard Organisation of Nigeria to see that pirated materials are kept away from the country.

He also noted that some copyright owners did not help the situation as they did not come forward to report cases of infringements, without which the Commission would be totally handicapped to get a conviction in the court of law.

For Teco Benson, the CEO of TFP Studios, piracy laws in Nigeria do not have enough “teeth  to bite.Some of the laws have sanctions of N1,000 for people that are caught in the act; so if you are a pirate, you pirate a film and just have to pay N1,000!”

He urged government to make more legislation, enforce stiffer sanctions on piracy and increase public awareness as some people commit the act in total ignorance, stressing that Nollywood is the hope of Nigeria and it is high time government began to raise the stakes in the piracy war as the film industry could make significant contributions to the nation’s GDP.