Film: Why We Must Step Up War Against Piracy, By Buhari

There is a presidential directive to all the security agencies connected to the battle against intellectual property theft charging them to step up their efforts to curb the menace of pirates.

In the reckoning of President Muhammadu Buhari, piracy is making it impossible for artistes in Nigeria’s vibrant entertainment industry ‘to enjoy the fruit of the labour’.

President Buhari’s directive came after receiving a briefing from the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan on Tuesday in Abuja. He was quoted as saying that the security agencies must work with practitioners of the industry to combat the menace, which has been roundly identified as the bane of the entertainment industry. 
“Nollywood is making progress. We should work with them. Unless they are backed, pirates who want to reap where they have not sowed will ruin them.

They have built an industry with their own sweat. It is therefore incumbent on us to give them the necessary support,’’ the President said. But the President, who quite clearly did not enjoy the support of most members of the entertainment community during the campaigns that led to his election as President, did not stop there.

He charged law enforcement agencies to identify the perpetrators of copyright piracy, their sponsors and collaborators, and bring them to justice. He restated the fact that the practitioners, more than ever before, need the support and backing of government to stem the tide.

Chairman of AVRS, Mahmood Ali-Balogun

Popular singer Tuface Idibia, foremost marketer and distributor Gab Onyi Okoye aka Igwe Gabosky and Chairman of the Audio-Visual Rights Society (AVRS) Mahmood Ali-Balogun are pleased at the development. They say that they are happy that such a charge is coming from someone as purposeful as President Buhari who is known to have zero tolerance for corruption and anything that is anti-people.

But they want the President to go a step further, beyond giving security agencies a charge, to set up appropriate anti-piracy mechanism that will tackle the scourge.

Tuface Idibia particularly advocated a complete overhaul of the present anti-piracy mechanism, noting that whatever structure that is presently in place has ‘done more harm than good’ to what should ordinarily be a flourishing Nigerian entertainment industry.

Responding to this development, AVRS chairman, Mr. Mahmood Ali-Balogun commended the significant presidential directive and expressed the readiness of AVRS to partner with law enforcement agencies and the media in the task to curb movie piracy in Nigeria, which, according to him, has continued to hamper growth efforts in Nollywood.

Ali-Balogun, however, wants the President to urgently follow up with ‘’setting up of anti-piracy squad akin to the Special Anti Robbery Squad with an Assistant Inspector General (AIG) in charge just as former President Olusegun Obasanjo did for drug counterfeiting and to follow up with Executive Bill to amend the copyright law and make piracy an economic crime.’’

Most right owners believe that the scourge has continued unabated because government and its relevant agencies including the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) and even the law enforcement agencies have not shown enough commitment in tackling the scourge.

Most observers don’t even feel that the NCC and the law enforcement agencies perceive copyright infringement as a serious crime. Right owners have often lamented that the NCC as presently constituted have looked elsewhere while the crime has continued unabated.

“Piracy is a monstrous disincentive to investment in the creative industry,’’ says notable filmmaker Sanni Muazu who is of the opinion that piracy has gotten to a level where it should be declared an economic crime. However, Igwe Gabosky thinks that the situation has been allowed to get out of hand because as he alleged the NCC has failed in its responsibilities and has not shown enough commitment in the fight against piracy.

Gab Onyi Okoye… at the launch of transerve anti piracy protection

“The NCC is a toothless bulldog,” he charged. “The commission is constrained in the area of enforcement. I know how much I have spent trying to protect the works under my stable all because of the toothless bulldog called NCC. Piracy has assumed another dimension because of the inefficiency of the NCC.

In fact, there is no industry today. These pirates some of whom are known to the NCC have wrecked the entire industry from music, to books to fine arts to movies,’’ Gabosky alleged. Notable filmmaker Mr. Tony Abulu who a few years back instigated a major raid on bootleggers in the United States maintained that piracy remains the albatross of Nollywood and that the only institution capable of putting an end to piracy is the Nigerian government through the NCC.

Foremost filmmaker, Chief Eddie Ugbomah, an officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) thinks that Nollywood and indeed the entire creative industry may head to its eventual demise if the tide as it concerns copyright enforcement does not change. Ugbomah wonder why the artistes “have to beg the NCC to do a job it was set up to do.”

He says: “If the NCC cannot do what is right, government should scrap them and set up a body capable of guaranteeing a society that respects intellectual property” he said. Officials of the NCC however disagree with those alleging that they have failed in their responsibilities.

They maintain that the Commission has even within the limits of its resources stepped up efforts to stop the menace of intellectual property theft in the country. The NCC Director General, Mr. Afam Ezekude has continuously restated the Commission’s commitment to the regulation of the country’s copyright industry.

He disclosed at a recent press conference that the Commission has taken a number of steps including raids and arrests that are aimed at fighting the scourge. He pointed to the recent arrest of and prosecution of suspected pirates and the confiscation of pirated products.

But stakeholders in the creative industry say the fight against intellectual property infringement has gone beyond carrying out occasional raids and confiscation of pirated products.

They want the Commission to be more active in the discharge of its duties and to also ensure a proactive enforcement of the copyright law so as to make the creative industry lucrative.

Foremost film journalist and film critic, Shaibu Husseini advised NCC to shift its focus from administration to enforcement and to exercise an aspect of the revised legal framework that confers powers, rights and privileges on a police officer or copyright inspectors in the prosecution or defense of a civil or criminal matter under the act.

Shaibu also wants the existing copyright laws ‘reviewed in line with international laws and the World Intellectual property organization (WIPO) conventions’. According to him, “the laws are very lenient.

When you ask a pirate to pay a fine of one hundred thousand naira or go to jail for three months, he will pay the fine and walk on to pirate more movies.

There should be long sentences and no option of fine. Besides, the reviewed law should be such that will ensure speedy trial of suspects. No creative person has time to be going to court unending just because he wants punishment for a fellow who is not different from an arm robber.’’