FG to partner creative industry to fight piracy
(Nigeria) The Federal Government has said it will work with
relevant bodies to fight the piracy of intellectual property in the country,
while saying the establishment of a National Endowment for the Arts will bridge
the funding gap in the sector.
The Minister of Information and culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, gave the assurance in Lagos on at his maiden Roundtable with
stakeholders in the movie industry, tagged ''Redefining The Nollywood
Strategy.''
Enumerating the negative effects of piracy, which he said
has become ''a monstrous disincentive to the creative industry,'' the Minister
noted that the government is committed to battling piracy, as exemplified by
the President's directive to the relevant agencies to reduce the menace to the
barest minimum.
“My immediate suggestion is for us to declare piracy as an
economic crime, have a regulatory direction, domesticate most of the
international conventions on piracy, review and strengthen existing copyright
law as well as make the punishment for copyright more stringent so as to
discourage pirates.
“Perhaps a longer jail term with no option of fine and a
speedy trial of suspects as we have in other countries will help in this fight.
I think also that the entertainment industry is ripe enough to have a dedicated
National Task Force on Piracy. We shall propose that and see how it all works
out for the good of our cultural industries and the nation. We truly need a
proactive enforcement of the copyright law so as to make the creative industry
lucrative,” he said.
Alhaji Mohammed, who acknowledged lack of funding as another
major challenge facing the movie industry, said the establishment of a National
Endowment for the Arts would help tackle that challenge not only for the movie
industry but the entire creative industry.
“Like the American model, we should at this time - when we
are trying to streamline spending - think of having a properly established
National Endowment for the Arts, NEA, that will service all genre of the arts.
I have no doubt that the establishment of NEA will facilitate the introduction
of Tax Rebates as incentives for sponsors of the arts and will give prime place
to the arts and cultural sector in budgeting processes, since it has capacity
to create massive job opportunities.
''The good news is that, as part of our massive social
intervention policy, this administration has made available the sum of N500
billion naira to be accessed by creative people like you as well as artisans,
market women, unemployed youths and others,” he said.
The Minister also expressed his readiness to convene a
review meeting of the Nigerian Film Policy in order to fast-track the setting
up of the Motion Picture Practitioners Council of Nigeria (MOPPICON) that will
address most of the issues that have bedeviled growth in the industry,
including distribution, regulation, financing, incentives for investors who
sponsor the arts, visibility for artistes in matters concerning their trades,
establishment of a film fund and how the fund will continuously be funded as
well as the structural deficiency in the sector.
The Minister said that as part of the ongoing restructuring
of the agencies under the ministry, the regulatory bodies in the ministry would
be infused with purposeful, practical, dynamic and experienced leadership to
drive the agencies in line with global best practices.
On the issue of distribution of movies, he noted that the
present chaotic distribution network cannot achieve the desired objective, and
promised to meet with the practitioners and the regulatory agencies to work out
effective policies and strategies to tackle the distribution challenge.
“A possible strategy is for us to have an Investment Forum
where we can attract real investment in the area of distribution of
entertainment content. At the moment, we have very small players in that sector.
We need to attract big corporations and we can do that through an investment
forum, where we will show them what they stand to gain from investing in
distribution, and of course we shall present incentives that will attract them.
''Besides, I am proposing that we hold an annual Film Market
that will grow into a huge tourism event and will emerge as the biggest content
market in the continent. Such events have potentials of attracting investors to
an industry. We shall also look at the provision in the film policy that
encourages the state to invest in the setting up of community cinemas in the
774 local government areas of the country,” the Minister said.
Alhaji Mohammed expressed dissatisfaction with the current
practice in which television and cable TV stations operating in the country
saturate the airwaves with foreign soaps, and advised them to fund the local
production of movies and documentaries as obtained in other parts of the world
where television and cable stations sponsor contents and provide airtime for
them.
He harped on the need for all the stakeholders in the movie
industry to come under one umbrella in order to articulate their problems and
to better interface with the government, instead of the current situation where
there are fragmented bodies and guilds in the industry.
Responding on behalf of the Nollywood stakeholders at the
meeting, Mr. Mahmood Ali-Balogun, commended the Minister for his indepth
knowledge of the industry.
“You have enumerated everything that is bedeviling the
industry these past years, even proffering solutions before hearing us,” he
said.
Mr. Balogun, who is the Chairman of the Audio-Visual Rights
Society of Nigeria, AVRS, called for the total overhaul of the regulatory
agencies in the ministry and the appointment of people with requisite
qualification, understanding, experience and exposure to man the agencies for
optimal performance.
The event was attended by many Nollywood personalities
including Ralph Nwadike, Saidi Balogun, Kate Henshaw, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe and
Lancelot Imasuen.
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