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the price of an original CD which costs about $5. In 2006, about N5.9 billion was lost to
Piracy in Nigeria which represented about 95% of CDs sold in the country. The other
detrimental impacts of piracy include encouraging the continued brain drain of talented
artists and other professionals, the loss of cultural heritage, loss of tariffs, taxes and
foreign exchange earnings as well as opportunities for foreign investment.
Piracy is a scourge for the Nigerian entertainment industry and threats the respect of the
international property rights convention
. If Nigeria gets a reputation as a nation that is
tolerant to piracy many multinationals will steer clear of it. As a signatory to TRIPS
(Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) under the WTO, Nigeria has
several obligations which are not yet fulfilled.
+ details but Chris from NPC is out of the
country.
The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NPC) has made several efforts to enforce some of
the related laws and has attempted to improve industrial standards for the IP trade.
The
NCC is the most important body dealing with IPR and is responsible for handling all
matters affecting copyrights and Nigeria’s position in relation to international copyrights
conventions, as well as building public awareness of copyrights. Recently NCC has been
active in liaising with international organizations dealing with IP rights protection and
works on the gradual introduction of authenticating serial number codes on genuine
Music and movie CDs.
Nigeria lacks of a national comprehensive antipiracy framework which would include all
governmental bodies dealing with IPR.
First, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS)
regulates cross-border trade and smuggling. In this sense, illegal trade and fake IP goods
should be treated on the same basis as fake drugs or fake money and should be
confiscated if detected and the dealers prosecuted. Second the Nigerian Investment
Promotion Council (NIPC) has a major role to play as piracy deters higher levels of
foreign investment. Third, the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) standardizes
and regulates the quality of all products in Nigeria, and according to section (3)
subsection (1) of the 1972 Act No. 56, the statutory functions of SON is, among other
things, to “undertake investigations as necessary into the quality of facilities, materials,
and products in Nigeria and establish a quality assurance system including certification of
facilities, products, and laboratories.” The SON’s concerns in this matter are centered of
the fact that pirated IP products are categorically inferior in quality to the genuine ones.
Recently SON has cooperated with musicians through their association PMAN, to
enforce quality control procedures, in the music industry.
An archaic production, distribution and marketing value chain
Nigeria movies are characterized by low quality standards and are produced within three
weeks.
The vast majority of Nigerian movies are not produced in studios and the duration
of shooting generally ranges from 10 to 20 days. Films are made in digital format, which
reduce the cost of editing, which takes about 1 to 2 weeks. So the entire process of
making a film is usually completed within 4 to 5 weeks. Most are shot on location all
over Nigeria with hotels, homes and offices often rented out by their owners and
appearing in the movie credits. Using such locations it is very difficult to provide quality
sound and lighting. Shooting is often also restricted by the other activities that are going