Skip to main content

Intellectual Property Infringement in Nigeria

Intellectual property owners in Nigeria gathered at the National Theatre during a protest rally displaying placards. The practitioners made up of musicians, actors, writers etc. are embarking on what they described as hunger strike which they claim will continue until they get the attention of government.

The protesters are calling for the short-down of Alaba International market in Western Nigeria, which it is believed remains the single largest international piracy cartel in sub-Saharan Africa. As part of their protest, high powered delegation will be sent to the National Assembly in Abuja. They also announced a plan to ask all radio and television stations nation-wide to stand-down all music programs for twelve hours starting from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. This action is too driving in the importance of music in our lives.

This is the first time ever that such a large gathering of intellectual property owners have come together to protest against copyright abuse.

These Nigerians deserve the support of every Nigerian and the authorities. I appeal to the National Assembly to receive their protest letter with open mind and work towards addressing the issues raised. I also believe the international intellectual property owners and producers should give their support to this new effort because it is for the protection of the interest of both local and international intellectual property rights.

It is imperative to consider the claim by intellectual property owners that this industry is bigger than the oil industry in terms of revenue generation. This makes the sector one to reckon with. This means that government stand to benefit if the industry is developed and the appropriate controls are put in place. Government can raise huge tax revenue from music, software, movies, books etc.

It is therefore pertinent to remind us that while we are protesting and craving for better controls and management of the industry, it should be made clear that we should be ready to pay taxes on these intellectual property materials as well as our personal tax returns. That is how government can directly benefit.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Missiles on Wheels

Sadly, only a couple of weeks ago, I lost a close family friend in a ghastly car crash along the Lekki - Epe expressway, involving a commercial vehicle,  whose driver, probable drunk and driving without head lamps, ran across the road to the other side of the road, causing a head-on collision with her official vehicle. Every day, we see many commercial vehicles and tipper trucks, driving along the Lekki Expressway without head lamps at night.  I have seen a big truck drive on this road with two of its rear tires completely absent, and was rolling on bear reams. Believe it or not, the road safety officials are all over the place. Whether they themselves see these things or not is not left for me to say. Another very dangerous practice by commercial bus drivers along the Lekki - Ajah axis, is that they disconnect the fuel tank of their vehicle and use a plastic container which they keep at the booth of the vehicle with a hose connected directly to the engine.  This sam...
2 comments
Read more

FG, Key to Full Internet Connectivity

The Internet sprouted from what was then a national computer network project called ARPANET, which was under the control of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), an agency within the United States Department of Defence. The first countries to be connected to the Internet outside the U.S were England and Norway in 1973, and it was mostly used by universities, polytechnics and research agencies. Now, there are over a hundred countries with full Internet connectivity out of which only 11 are from the African continent (with the exclusion of Nigeria). Developments on the Internet in recent times had been very rapid, making it the world’s most advanced medium of communication with an installed base of over 50 million computers users linked worldwide, and an approximate annual growth rate of 2000 percent. The Internet is by far the fastest growing segment in the information technology industry. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, corroborated this fact when he said: “The surging popula...
2 comments
Read more

Rebranding Nigeria Project

Beddes and Grosset Webster define brand as trademark; a particular make or kind of goods. Therefore, branding is essentially about products; and a communications function of design, packaging and publicity. The Nigeria rebranding project therefore is out of focus and faulty and requires urgent redefinition of the entire process. Rebranding in the context of the Nigeria experience should focus on our national identity, which in this instance are our products. Our national identity includes and not limited to our national anthem, flag, name of country, currency, crest and emblems, uniforms of our police and armed forces, our national colours etc. It is after the completion of the rebranding process that publicity and public relations commences. It is during this process that image laundering, and to put more aptly, 'social re-engineering' can be introduced. As it is practiced now, we are simply putting the cart before the horse. We need to re-align the process with internatio...
2 comments
Read more