The Nigerian Copyright Commission says stronger enforcement of the new Copyright Act has helped reduce piracy in Nigeria.
The Director General of the NCC, Dr John Asein, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday.
Asein said the commission was currently assessing the level of piracy in the country to determine the full impact of the Copyright Act 2022 on Nigeria’s creative industry.
Although he said there was no empirical data yet to give a specific figure for the reduction, he confirmed that piracy had declined.
According to him, piracy has serious effects on the creative industry because it prevents creators from making enough money from their works and recovering their investments.
He added that widespread piracy also discourages people from investing in content creation and makes it harder for Nigeria to attract foreign partners and investors.
Asein said the growing use of digital platforms had made copyright protection more important because creative works could now be accessed and shared from almost anywhere in the world.
He gave an example of a movie piracy website that was registered with a Nigerian “.ng” domain, although its operators were based in Asia.
According to him, the NCC successfully shut down the Nigerian domain, forcing the operators to move the platform to the Philippines.
“This is what happens when you do not put the right guidelines in your country. Then you will have a free-for-all, where rogues will take over legitimate play,” he said.
The NCC boss stressed that Nigeria could not allow piracy to weaken its internationally recognised film and music industries.
“We can’t afford to see the actual players going beggarly just because pirates are taking over,” he said.
Asein said the commission was also using technology to block websites and platforms that illegally distribute copyrighted materials.
He said the impact of the enforcement could be seen in complaints from some people who could no longer access free music and movies through illegal platforms.
“We have had some other sectors that have come to us and complained that where they used to get free music has been blocked,” he said.
He, however, called for stronger protection of copyrighted works as more Nigerians use mobile devices to watch films and listen to music.
Asein said telecommunications companies were also introducing streaming services, making copyright protection important for both traditional and digital platforms.
He urged stakeholders to develop and follow measures that would protect creative works and support sustainable growth in Nigeria’s creative industry.
He said an action plan from a recent seminar could help move the creative industry forward as Nigeria marked its 66th Independence anniversary.
According to him, greater commitment from stakeholders to protecting creative works would help the industry continue to grow.
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