12 September 2007
editorial
Lagos — Recently the Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC) got a rare pat on the back when the United States remove Nigeria from the Special 301 Lists of countries blacklisted for condoning intellectual property theft in recognition of the renewed battle against the increasing spate of piracy and counterfeiting.
The Special 301 is a Federal law that defines the US measures against countries identified as denying effective protection for intellectual property.
Rather than see the endorsement as an opportunity to celebrate, the American action is more of a wake up call to the grim battle ahead and a stark reminder that the fight against intellectual property theft is still a long way from being won.
Despite the renewed vim brought in the fight against piracy in the country, intellectual property theft is still rampant. But the good tiding is that at least Nigeria has started the battle and the challenge is really how to minimise to the barest minimum, if not uproot, this cankerworm which undermines the creative enterprise of the artistes, writers and other creators of intellectual works who are being denied the fruits of their intellect.
The creative industry has been at the receiving end of piracy over the years. Book publishing which used to be a vital aspect of the economy has been greatly affected as many authors have suffered huge losses with the bookstands awash with fake copies of their works. In fact piracy in Nigeria has become a highly organised crime and a huge industry involving both locals and foreigners that controlled the bulk of both production and distribution channels of copyright works. Piracy thrives more in the entertainment industry where the production and distribution capacity of all genre of works are daily being undermined . The home video and music producers have suffered huge losses to the piracy. What is today the success story of Nollywood is indeed in spite of the pirates. Musicians still depend heavily on road shows to capitalise on their popular numbers as against the meagre amount of royalty from compact disc sales.
While we welcome the Strategic Action Against Piracy (STRAP) initiated by the Adebambo Adewepo - led NCC as a deliberate public-private sector collaborative platform for copyright protection and effective anti-piracy measures, we believe this synergy can be more effective if all stakeholders give more attention to enforcement while sustaining its public enlightenment programme. Closer monitoring of replicating plants in the country is essential as many of these plants thrive on the illicit replication of works of foreign and local artistes, while still useful for legitimate business. The fulcrum of this cooperation should also extend to funding collaboration as government cannot fund the fight alone. Come to think of it, the private individual is the main beneficiary of the success in the anti-piracy crusade.
The commission must thus put in place the enabling structures and systems necessary to make the works of the creative artistes profitable. It also behoves practitioners and players in the industry to play by the rules to conform to international best practices.
While such initiatives as the Copyright Notification, Video Rental and Hologram Schemes as well as the Optical Disc Regulation are geared towards this end, the Commission needs to act to curtail the incidence of broadcast piracy which equally robs many artistes of their legitimate entitlements. The NCC should therefore resolve all the nagging issues in collective administration in the music sub-sector in the best interest of rights owners and creators in the industry. Two bodies, the Performing and Mechanical Rights Society (PMRS) and the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MSCN) have been in the fore of this campaign.
But more importantly, we believe that an amendment to the Copyright Act to provide stiffer penalties to serve as a deterrent to pirates is long overdue. Piracy has become a serious problem that is injurious to the economy. The defence of intellectual property demands drastic action against piracy
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