Emmanuel Thomas
June 22, 2015 – Chairman, Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), Chief Tony Okoroji has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to implement the Copyright Levy Scheme which was promulgated over 23 years ago to enable right holders earn money from their works in an increasing digital world.
Okoroji who was reacting to debates on the need for Nigeria to join Creative Commons, noted that there was no need for such transition for now but that as the digital revolution evolves, it is clear that the shape of the music industry is becoming remarkably different.
According to him, section 40 of the Copyright Act which provides for the Private Copy Levy scheme can however address some of the consequences of the menace if it is brought into force, but said that unfortunately well over 23 years since the promulgation of the law, the unending protocol, red tape and bureaucracy in the Federal government system have made it impossible for the stakeholders to benefit from this important scheme which lubricates the creative industries in neighbouring nations such as Ghana and Burkina Faso.
Okoroji stated that adopting the Creative Commons model of copyright management at this time will only deal a big blow on Nigeria’s already threatened creative industries.
“I want to plead with those who want Nigeria to join the Creative Commons experiment to tarry a while. The copyright culture in our country is still being built. A sudden jump into the Creative Commons model at this point will send devastating mixed signals that would do significant harm to our creative industries. This is not the time,” hoping that President Buhari who has indicated that it wants to release the creative potentials of the Nigerian people will without delay activate the scheme which he saidwill provide some succor not just for the music industry but also for the movie and literary industries”, he said.
He said that Nigerians currently depend on digital music often purchased at Computer Village, Lagos.
“Rather than buy physical products like vinyl, music cassettes, CDs or DVDs, most consumers are obtaining and storing enormous amount of music on their cell phones, i pads, i pods, Mp3s, Mp4s, memory chips, memory sticks and similar digital devices. A tiny amount of this is paid for. A lot is not paid for. The method of music distribution is also changing rapidly with the telephone companies and internet aggregators providing the ‘pipes’ through which music moves from the producers to the consumers.
“The headquarters of music piracy in Nigeria may also have changed from the notorious Alaba Market to the Ikeja Computer Village, all in Lagos. In Computer Village and replicated in many Nigerian cities today, thousands of young men with laptops and without the authorization of the owners of the works, are openly compiling the most popular songs in the market for a small fee, transferring these songs to mobile handsets, mp3s, mp4s, i pods, i pads, i phones, or flash drives for whoever has money to pay! The emergence of this kind of brazen digital piracy is a menace which has resulted in the dwindling sales of physical music products like CDs and DVDs and putting hundreds of thousands of legitimate jobs at risk and driving away millions of dollars in badly needed investment.
“I do not think that anyone ever expected this kind of development. The enforcement climate needed to deal with this is absent as the resources needed to attack this scourge which appears to be particularly Nigerian do not seem to be there”, he said.
Okoroji said that with the advent of the digital era and the many challenges it presents, now is the time for all hands to be on deck to protect the rights of creative people in Nigeria and not create loop holes in a system that has begun to reward the hard work of thousands of creative Nigerians after many years of wastage brought about by the blatant abuse of the nation’s intellectual property rights.
