Piracy can be mitigated, can’t be totally eliminated – experts
By Abimbola Mohammed
Industry leaders, legal practitioners and stakeholders in the entertainment industry have urged people to discourage piracy by not downloading or filming other peoples work through inappropriate channels or use without acknowledging the real owners. They added that such step, if collectively taken, will reduce piracy to the barest minimum even though the act may not be totally eliminated.
Making the submission at the just concluded anti-piracy roundtable organized by Multichoice with the theme: “Piracy Untells Our Stories”, the roundtable addressed the challenges content creators face each time unauthorized persons, companies or groups use their content without their knowledge or permission.
According to the professionals, intellectual property theft is a criminal offence and pirates neither understand nor appreciate the efforts put into achieving the great contents that creatives put out there for their audiences.
On his part, legal practitioner and Intellectual property expert, Obafemi Agaba, describing who intellectual property pirates at, said: “Pirates are thieves who wait for creatives to expend time, resources, energy and money to come up with things that benefit us from an educational, entertainment and cultural perspectives. They wait upon creatives and try to exploit the gains of all their work without the permission of the creators.”
He added that: “Piracy will continue to exist and that the industry can only reduce it to the barest minimum. Secondly, pirates’ interest is just business, what they can get out of other people’s work. They don’t care if it is right or wrong.”
“What we can do as stakeholders and regulators is to keep fighting and fighting to the point that we can successfully bring them down to the barest minimal level,” he added.
In the same vein, Dr. Busola Tejumola, Executive Head of Content and West Africa Channels at MultiChoice West Africa, noted that: “Piracy takes away all that a producer has worked for. Our event signifies a commitment to collaborative efforts, where industry leaders come together to share insights, develop strategies, and fortify our defences against content theft.
“We recently launched a continent-wide television campaign to emphasise how piracy erases African stories and jeopardises jobs in the production and creative industries. If piracy remains unchecked, it will result in fewer African stories being told, fewer local productions commissioned, and fewer opportunities for content producers. I appeal to our nation and our continent to unite against piracy and empower Africa’s creatives to earn a living from their talent,” she said.
She, therefore, urged everyone to join in the fight against piracy: “I urge everyone to join the fight against piracy. Together, we can ensure a vibrant and sustainable future for the creative industry.”
Charles Amudipe, Deputy director of operations, Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC), while speaking on the damages piracy causes and its danger to the economy, said: “What the pirate does is to exploit the creative work without the permission of the owner in different forms, wether by reproduction of the work or by making it available to the public through adaptation or whatever forms without permission of the original owner.”
Touching on the measures that the law has put in place for offenders and copyright theft, he said: “My DG usually tells the industry players that the only reason NCC exists is to make sure they benefit from their works. So, with that in mind, the commission is ever willing to assist in whatever way we can. I will advocate that we keep going after these people either physically or online.”
Victor Okhai, President, Directors Guild of Nigeria, in his submission touched on why piracy still persists and lingers till now is because of lack of education on the dangers of piracy to the country and also because of corruption on the parts of the agency that should enforce the law.
“It is important to know the things that feed piracy, and I will try to break it down. What pirates do is fill a gap and the gap is that they make available content from creatives to an audience that feels they can’t afford or don’t want to pay a certain amount if the creator wants to sell it. They make the content available at a cheaper price. Sometimes if the creator can’t meet the demands of the audience, the pirate sees that as an opportunity to fill that demand gap.
“The reason piracy persists is because there is still demand for it. Pirates only thrive because people patronize pirated offerings. One of the challenges is that people don’t have respect for other people’s hard work.”
“Piracy has persisted because there is not adequate education on the dangers it causes, it persists because of corruption among those who should enforce anti piracy,” he added.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Comment
No comments found.