Are You a Thief?

Storie by Vanessa Obioha

This was the crucial question posed by the President of the Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN), Victor Okhai, during the anti-piracy roundtable organised by MultiChoice Nigeria. The event, which aimed to dissect the pervasive piracy ecosystem, brought to light the ongoing challenge of intellectual property theft in Nollywood.

Piracy has long been a thorn in the side of Nollywood, and with technological advancements, the problem has migrated to digital spaces like Telegram. Here, pirated creative works are readily available for free download, exacerbating the impact on the industry.  But are pirates the only culprits? How prompt are regulatory bodies such as the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) in tackling these crimes? Is the judiciary well-equipped to convict perpetrators? These were some of the questions tackled by the panellists which included legal practitioner and intellectual property expert Obafemi Agaba, Deputy Director, Operations, NCC, Charles Amudipe, and Channels Head, Africa Magic, Evi Odafe, at the session moderated by Arise News TV presenter Ojinika Okpe.

For Agaba, intellectual property piracy is simply stealing.

“Once you’ve taken whatever does not belong to you, without the permission of the owner, you are a thief,” he said.

“What the pirate does is to exploit a creative work without the permission of the owner in different forms, whether by reproduction of the work or by making the work available to the public, or an adaptation of the work. In whatever form you have exploited that work  without the permission of the owner of the work, you have become a pirate and therefore a thief.”

In response to Okpe’s question on why piracy fuels, Okhai explained that “ pirates fill a gap. It could be a price gap, which means there are certain people who can’t afford a creative product or are not willing to pay the amount. The pirates therefore take advantage of it. Again, when demand is not met by the filmmaker, pirates fill in that demand.”

For filmmakers Chichi Nworah and Uche Ikejimba, the financial and mental toll of seeing their works pirated cannot be understated. They called for more punitive actions and regulation by bodies like NCC. While Amudipe acknowledged the NCC’s efforts in securing convictions, Agaba argued that the judiciary is not well equipped to pass judgment on intellectual property crimes. He,  therefore, advocated for a specialized intellectual property court to handle such cases effectively.

But the filmmakers are not the only victims of piracy as Odafe Odafe revealed that even industry giants like MultiChoice Nigeria are not immune to piracy, with productions like Big Brother Naija being pirated. She shared the company’s proactive approach, including engaging a cybersecurity firm. “We do not commission content to companies that are not audited or registered,” added the Executive Head of Content and Channels West Africa, MultiChoice Nigeria, Busola Tejumola as part of the steps taken by the company.

The discussion underscored the collective responsibility to combat piracy, acknowledging that end-users who patronise pirates are also culpable. Therefore, they need to be targeted in anti-piracy campaigns.

The panellists concluded that a united front is essential to mitigate piracy’s far-reaching impact on the creative sector, emphasizing the need for stringent measures to discourage offenders.