A report has warned that until the issue of the approval of collecting societies is fairly resolved, anti-piracy activity in Nigeria will remain a mirage.
The report compiled by the management of the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN) indicates that there was no notable anti-piracy activity in Nigeria in the year 2010.
The report was prepared in response to a questionnaire sent out to all stakeholders in copyright administration around the world by the web based World Anti-Piracy Observatory(WAPO), a body under United Nation Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) for the evaluation of anti-piracy activities in 2010.
The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), which is the regulatory agency that would have driven such anti-piracy activities, was enmeshed in some regulatory faux pas which virtually held the entire copyright environment hostage for the period and beyond, the report says.
However, in May 2010, the NCC came out with an announcement licensing an organisation as the sole collective management organisation for the country. This raised legal and moral issues which put all activities relating to the protection of authors’ rights virtually on hold. The DG of the NCC was replaced by a man who is presently trying to chart a new course,” it noted.
The report concluded that “2010 equally was the year when piracy of audio and audio-visual carriers assumed a larger dimension.
The streets of urban cities were populated and littered with hawkers of sound and image carriers of pirated products either manufactured locally or imported. NCC officials were never available to do anything, while Societies which have the capacity to initiate and execute activities to checkmate piracy were hounded for the better part of the year until they had to take legal action to protect its existence and business.
