MULTICHOICE Nigeria, a canal+ company has rallied the industry against the ever rising cases of piracy in the entertainment sector
Describing it as a recurring menace, MultiChoice, yesterday in Lagos, organised “Walk Against Piracy” as part of a larger campaign leading up to National Anti-Piracy Day on November 30.
The firm, which gathered industry stakeholders, film makers, music producers, artistes, content creators and journalists, who walked from Ikeja City Mall to Balogun Street, Ikeja and back, said the industry is bleeding as a result of some peoples ignorance and wickedness.
Some of the placards on display read, ‘Over 50 per cent of Nollywood films are pirated’; ‘Piracy huts the economy, kills the industry’; ‘Piracy is theft, protect the industry’, among others.
Present to give a filip to the campaign are popular movie producer and actor, Saheed Balogun, Chidi Emetalom, Content Creator, Tim Agbaje, among others.
Speaking with journalists, Executive Head of Corporate Affairs for MultiChoice Nigeria, Caroline Oghuma, said the campaign was more than a PR stunt; it was the culmination of a months-long campaign, one that had already taken the message into Lagos secondary schools.
She piracy is when, “when you illegally download, stream, share or sell copyrighted creative work, like a new Nollywood or Hollywood blockbuster, a trending Afrobeats song or the latest Nigerian novel without paying the creator.
“As such, we don’t just protect our business today, we walk for every young person who dreams of telling a Nigerian story. When piracy steals, it doesn’t just steal a DVD or a subscription; it steals a future job, a new studio, a dream not yet realised.”
According to her, there is need to say no to piracy, stressing that creativity deserves compensation.
She submitted that every act of piracy in whatever form, remains a major disincentive to growing the economy and limits the creative sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP.
Piracy kills dreams, destroys global recognition. It ruins the experience. It’s unfair to the creators. Above all, it hurts the economy,” she stressed.
Oghuma said piracy drains billions from Nigeria’s creative industry, that means less money to make new films, albums and shows, which further means fewer chances for young people to earn a living.She pointed out that every illegal stream makes it harder for Nigerian movies and music to compete worldwide.
“We can’t show the world how great we are if we keep stealing from our creators,” Oghuma emphasised.
On his part, Director of Lagos Operations, Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), Charles Amudipe, called for strong deterrent measures against piracy, saying the commission has been on top of the menace, including recently shutting down 20 illegal websites found to be pirating peoples work in the industry.
On his part, Balogun said so many artistes have run into hundreds of millions of debt because they couldn’t recoup their investments in any production be it films, music, and other contents.
He called for stronger collaboration in the industry, begging Nigerians to protect the industry by not pirating.
To Agbaje, pirated copies are often of poor quality, blurry screens, bad sound, annoying ads, and sometimes even computer viruses.
