Raheem Akingbolu

As part of the measures to bring intellectual property theft to barest minimum in Nigeria, the Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC), has urged content creators and conceptualizers of creative works in the country to protect their works by depositing the content either online or offline with the commission.

According to the Deputy Director, Operations, NCC, Charles Amudipe, keeping the works under NCC’s care is in line with the law and will make it easier for members of task-force to go after pirates and intellectual property thieves as well as prosecute them when found guilty.

Amudipe made this submission at the just concluded DSTV Multichoice fire side chat on “Piracy Untells Our Stories” event, with the theme: “The Economic Impact of Piracy: Lost Revenues and Jobs.”

His words: “The law provides for creative owners to deposit their works with Nigeria Copyright Commission and once that is done, two things have been established: one is that the commission is aware of the existence of the work – two is that when there is an issue on that particular work the creative can come with their proof of ownership. Then the commission, through the depository system that is in place, will check the system and establish that the work truly belongs to the original owner.” 

Meanwhile, industry leaders, legal practitioners and stakeholders in the entertainment industry, who contributed to the conversation called on creative professionals to discourage piracy by not downloading or leveraging other people’s works through inappropriate channels or use without acknowledging the real owners. They added that such a step, if collectively taken, will reduce piracy to the barest minimum even though the act may not be totally eliminated.

On his part, legal practitioner and Intellectual property expert, Obafemi Agaba, 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 perspective. They wait upon creatives and try to exploit the gains of all their work without the permission of the creators.”