The Nigeria movie industry tagged Nollywood and its players have continued to soldier on for decades despite challenges like the scourge of piracy.
Based on audience data, Nollywood loses a jaw-dropping N10 billion to 15 billion (US$6 million to $9 million) annually due to piracy. This is because Nollywood has faced persistent challenges with intellectual property (IP) rights violations for decades and the consequences have been significant,
Despite the advent of online and streaming platforms which has created alternative avenues for practitioners to express their creativity and make return on investment on their works, piracy has persisted and even seems increasing on a larger scale according to producers, film makers who spoke in separate interviews.
Reputable movie director, Abay Esho affirmed that indeed Piracy persists and it is even worse with advent of online and steaming platforms.
He noted that it is cheaper to pirate online and even difficult to detect because of the challenges in regulating social media platform which forms the major avenues for skit makers and content creators.
“I do not think we can stamp out piracy totally. It’s actually worse now than ever if you ask me. it’s not just restricted to movies but music and every other thing online.
“One of the main reasons is that it’s cheaper to pirate online and pretty hard to detect. Someone can download your movie, re-edit the title and credit line and throw it back online! It’s that easy!
“Musically, if you have a song that isn’t properly registered with an online distributor, a PRO, a publisher or others, someone can pick it up, register it and claim it!.
According to movie producer, Mike Nliam, “Basically the kind of piracy experienced nowadays is when people upload other people’s content without proper permission. This is quite rampant nowadays. It’s also easy for the content owner to apply d sword of domiciles by reporting immediately with evidence to Google, Facebook and such platform to flag d content. Greed drives piracy and that’s why it persists!”
Speaking further on whether our copyright laws are strong enough to combat piracy? Abay Esho says,
“Definitely not. Some of the copyright laws have been there since the colonial era, so legislative amendments have become an emergency.”
But Mike Nliam averred and noted that our copyright law is more than enough. “International copyright laws govern streaming on international streaming platforms.
I believe Nigeria is a member of CISAC,WIPO and such organizations that govern global copyright protection.”
Proffering solutions, Nliam says, “I don’t think we need to look too far as copyright laws are supposed to be global mostly. Look at the copyright laws of other climes, make amendments and adopt it.”
Abay Esho says, “One of the few ways to get properly protected is to, before coming online, register the work with copyright commission amongst other registrations before uploading your work”.
