Stakeholders in the entertainment industry are in agony. They face a gloomy future because they are helpless as pirates reap the fruits of their labour with impunity. SINA FADARE reports that except urgent and stern measures are taken, the industry is under threat of total collapse.
LEGENDARY comedian, Chief Moses Olaiya a.k.a. Baba Sala, cannot forget in a hurry the six-letter word ‘piracy’. It was the monster that humbled him and almost cut short his sojourn in the world of film making.
After a successful and enterprising career in stage acting, Baba Sala, as fondly called by his fans, decided to venture into film making in 1982 but got a deadly blow from pirates.
Having achieved a lot of popularity on stage, a friend advised him to venture into film making, after the likes of Ade Afolayan a.k.a. Ade Love, a popular Yoruba movie producer who had produced Ija Ominira. In those days, films were made not only in Nigeria, their post-production had to be done in the United Kingdom. It was an expensive business for which bank loans had to be procured.
Through the help of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Baba Sala was able to secure a loan to the tune of N1.5 million from National Bank. He used one of his friends, Chief JMJ’s three two-storey buildings and his own two buildings in choice areas of Lagos as collateral.
According to the popular comedian, his joy knew no bounds when his popular film, Orun Mooru, came out in 35mm format. But carrying them from one cinema house to the other became tedious and cumbersome, hence the producer, Ola Balogun, advised him to reduce the film to a smaller format so that it would become easier to carry.
It was at this point that the film fell into the hands of pirates and was duplicated into multiple copies. The world of Baba Sala collapsed like a pack of cards and things have never been the same again since then.
“I believed he was helping me, so I agreed,” Baba Sala lamented. “But that advice got me into trouble and turned me into the wretched of the earth.”
Thirty-three years after the Baba Sala episode, the activities of pirates are waxing stronger. They are operating with impunity and leaving a lot of casualties in their trail. A lot of film makers and movie producers are helpless and in tears.
Recently, ace comedian and producer of 30 Days in Atlanta, Ayo Makun, popularly known as AY, wrote an open letter to the former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Suleiman Abba, on the pirating of the movie, whose production he said had cost him more than N50 million. He regretted that all the measures he had put in place to check the nefarious activities of pirates proved futile.
He said: “I have always heard of the risk faced by honest producers and loss of revenue due to the activities of a cabal of pirates operating freely without fear of the law in Nigeria. And within the past few weeks, this has been my experience as I heard of the leakage of my movie to various nefarious elements.”
The comedian said: “No more should a miscreants be celebrated or allowed to rape the intellectual properties of honest, hardworking citizens with impunity while the owners of the property look on helplessly. No more should movie producers and other intellectual property owners scramble to make the little they can before the ‘Alaba Boys’ get their hands on the content.”
He, therefore, challenged the then IGP to use his good office to intervene, identify and arrest those who are involved in the obnoxious venture. Unfortunately the super cob could not help AY before he was booted out of office.
The latest victim of the pirates is Kunle Afolayan with his epic film, October 1, which was feasted upon by the syndicate called ‘Alaba Boys’ like a swam of grasshoppers would feed on a cassava field. Almost in tears as he lamented the havoc that pirates had done to his yet-to-be-released multimillion-dollar film, Afolayan stated that Alaba Boys had hurt his world.
According to him, a few days to the release of the film by the marketer, Alaba Boys sprang an unpleasant surprise as the films were already on the streets. If Afolayan was angry with the activities of the pirates, the marketer of the film, October 1, Igwe Gabriel Okoye, also known as Gabosky, was devastated. The National President of Government Licensed Motion Picture Distribution of Nigeria, in a chat with The Nation, lamented the serial havoc pirates have done to his business in recent times.
In an emotion laden voice, he lamented that October 1 was not the first film on his stable the Alaba Boys had pirated. Okoye said: “Last year, I launched Half of a Yellow Sun, by Yewande Sadiku. Before l finished discussion with them, it was released by the pirates. The owner and myself incurred heavy losses. We did all that was possible for the regulatory bodies, the Copy Right Commission and the Censorship Commission, to intervene but it all proved unsuccessful.
“They have to intervene because they are the agencies that licensed the premises and approve all the movies that are to be released or distributed in Nigeria. Both of them failed to do anything.”
According to him, he later acquired Ayo Makun’s 30 Days in Atlanta, but within the twinkle of an eye, it was also pirated. “l was still preparing to release it when it was released by pirates. Thereafter, it was a big case. We cried to the government but, again, they did nothing. I released Phone Swap, Tango with Me and Onye Ozi, it did not take two weeks before the three movies were pirated. We reported again to the government agencies but nothing happened.”
Still nursing the wound caused by the pirates on October 1, Okoye said he had reached an agreement with the producer to release the movie after the election only for him to find it on the streets of Lagos.
Condemning the activities of pirates, particularly in respect of October 1, a cinematographer and ace producer, Tunde Kelani, in a chat with The Nation, said the activities of pirates are not only deadly but can be likened to armed robbery. He said: “As a filmmaker, I feel frustrated over the menacing and unchecked activities of pirates of Nigerian movies. This sad development casts a dark pall on the jubilant mood of the nation, following the successful general election just concluded in Nigeria.”
Irked by the atrocities perpetrated by Alaba Boys, Okoye and other stakeholders in the industry, including artists, producers, script writers and marketers, stormed the Lagos State House of Assembly and the office of the former Governor of the State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, to express their frustration, agony and state of helplessness in the hands of pirates.
With placards bearing inscriptions like ‘Save our business from piracy’; ‘Piracy is affecting our growth, kill it’ and ‘Do not patronise pirates’, the artistes, including notable actors and actresses like Adebayo Salami, Yemi Sodimu, Steph-Nora Okere, Jide Kosoko, Kunle Afolayan, Iyabo Ojo and Tunde Kelani, marched from Oba Akran Avenue in Ikeja area of Lagos to the office of the former Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, with a brief stop at the Lagos State House of Assembly.
In their frustration, the artistes confiscated all the pirated copies of movies they saw on their way and presented them to the governor as exhibits.
Kelani, who spoke on behalf of the entertainers, said: “Before now, these pirates would wait until we had finished releasing our films. But now, they release our films before we authorise their release. Your Excellency, this trend has got to a dangerous dimension requiring a quick check.”
According to him, “Films produced in Nigeria and are still showing in the cinemas are pirated and sold on the streets of Lagos before official release by the investors. This is destroying lives, property, business and the industry as a whole.”
Fashola, who sympathised with the artistes and described the industry as a self-driven one, promised that the state government would collaborate with the entertainers in the fight against piracy. The governor canvassed for a holistic approach to the fight against piracy and saluted the courage of the entertainers and their readiness to tackle the menace.
Fashola regretted that the monitoring of the activities of pirates was on the exclusive list, which confers the responsibility solely on the Federal Government and decried the inability of the Federal Government to take steps that would curtail the menace.
“Please don’t despair. Let us continue the struggle and keep creating the awareness. You should all be involved. So count on me to help in any way possible,” he said.
Crux of the matter
Perhaps the biggest mystery that stakeholders are finding difficult to unravel is how pirates usually get copies of their movies before they are officially released. The Nation investigation at Alaba Market revealed that with the latest developments in technology which pirates invest in heavily, they can duplicate the originals of movies and go on to do mass production before such movies are officially released.
Speaking to The Nation, a former member of the syndicate, who said he had left the business to go into sales of electronics and identified himself simply as Emeka, said his former boss, whom he worked with for almost five years, was an expert in piracy.
Emeka, from whose shop the reporter purchased a video CD, queried: “Do you want them to tell you that they are pirates? That will be difficult. My former oga (boss), who took me from our village in Imo State, about six years ago, was involved in the business and we normally did mass dubbing of any targeted movie in his house in Ikeja at night. He bought the portable machine we used for doing that in Malaysia. All the packaging and transportation are done from his house at odd hours of the night. And when it was time to send the job to Port Harcourt and Onitsha, he engaged the services of some of his soldier friends who gave him escort to the final destination of the goods.”
Emeka also said that his former boss, whose identity he bluntly refused to disclose and would not confirm if he is still in the illegal business, “had contacts in major galleries in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt. Immediately the movie is shown or premiered there, he got the recorded version which he would dub massively, especially if it was a film that paraded top artistes.”
Everyone maintained sealed lips at galleries our correspondent visited in Lagos to confirm the existence of such shady activities. However, a ticketing officer, who spoke with the reporter on condition of anonymity, said in an era where everybody has become a hustler, there is nothing some people would not do for money.
According to her, a bigwig in Alaba International Market once approached her for a deal in that direction but she declined.”That is why l cannot say that such things do not happen in cinema houses,” she added.
Gabosky also believes that one cannot rule out the possibility of such leakages from cinema houses which usually demand for original copies of the movies. According to him, in many cases, some producers fail to pay the necessary fees before their movies are screened. “Along the line, anything can happen. This is a modern world of technology where ordinary phone can do the damage.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), which is saddled with the responsibility of policing, checkmating and apprehending pirates, is handicapped. The Nation investigation revealed that apart from the fact that the budget of the commission is meagre, there is no single naira allocated as impress to the Lagos operational office of the commission which is supposed to raid the den of the pirates almost on a daily basis.
More embarrassing is the fact that the Lagos operational office of the commission, with about five directors, cannot boast of a single operational vehicle that can convey the enforcement officers to the den of the pirates. The commission, which got less than N9 million as budget last year, could not even afford a mere computer for the Lagos office, forcing many of its officials to take sensitive files to business centres.
A visit to the office of the commission at Costain area of Lagos revealed the pathetic working conditions of the commission’s staff. After more than 10 minutes in the premises, the reporter could not locate the office of the zonal manager because darkness enveloped the entire office. There was no generator to provide alternative source to the epileptic supply of electricity. Even the furniture in the offices of the directors was an eye sore.
In spite of the challenges, the Zonal Manager, Mr. Chris Nkwocha, said the commission was able to impound a lot of pirated movies from the dens of pirates at Alaba. According to him, the commission in 2012 destroyed 12 trailer loads of pirated movies at Epe, adding that about 55 convictions on cases of pirates had been made in various courts in the country.
Nkwocha said contrary to the allegations by stakeholders, the commission does not fold its arms when cases of pirated movies are reported. He said his men always go into action within the limits of the commission’s meagre resources. In the case of piracy involving Kunle Afolayan’s October 1, he said: “We invited the Alaba dealers to our office in order to have a lasting solution to the issue and chart the way forward. But the same day, the marketers mobilised themselves with SARS policemen, came to our office and arrested some of the Alaba dealers. That has created lack of confidence for Alaba dealers in honouring our subsequent invitations.”
The zonal manager, however, said the commission was on top of the issue and would do everything it could to check the excesses of the pirates, adding that the commission needs the cooperation of the marketers and all the stakeholders in order to fight piracy to a standstill.
Weak legislation
Perhaps, stakeholders in the entertainment industry are right when they argued that weak legislation is the bane of piracy. The Copyrights Act, amended in 1999, stated that a film is a work that is eligible for copyright protection; the owner of the copyright in a film is the producer unless otherwise stated in an agreement; a film is a bundle of copyrighted works, including for example, the story, the acting, the music, etc. For copyright in these works to pass to the producer, a written assignment must be made; infringement occurs when any of the following acts is done without the permission of the producer: (a) Making a copy of the film by causing the film to be seen and heard in public (b) Making and using a recording of the sound track of the film (c) Distributing copies of the film for commercial purposes by way of rental, lease, hire, loan or similar arrangement.
However, The Nation investigation revealed that majority of those who were prosecuted were either given the option of ridiculous fines or few years behind the bar with an option of minimal fines.
Lamenting why the Copyright Act seems to be a mere paper tiger, a legal practitioner in Lagos, Mr. Wale Ogunade, said the issue is a simple matter and not a constitutional one. He said: “The problem we have in this country is the implementation of this law in relation to institution. Nigeria, with all intent and purpose, is a perverse society.”
Ogunade argued that “the unfortunate aspect of this issue of piracy is that those who are supposed to tackle it look the other way. People just play the ostrich and everybody is suffering. We should be looking out for an institution that would be set up to see that the laws are implemented.”
He lamented that the investigative power of the police is not always utilised, adding that “most of these pirates are big men in the society who can always circumvent the system to favour their nefarious activities. It is sad that it is only in Nigeria that a president would declare that there are cabals working against government policies and failed to use the instrument of power to destroy them for the sake of all.” He challenged government to wake up to its responsibility.
”Let the cabal at Alaba know that they are engaging in illegal business that is jeopardising the business of some people, and they should stop it. Government also should salvage the Nollywood industry which is a pride of the country, before they are run out of circulation by pirates. If there are no punishments people will continue to perpetrate crimes and get away with them. If the pirates are caught, let them face the wrath of the law fully. By so doing, others will not venture into it,” he said.
Corroborating Ogunade’s view, Okoye regretted that the law is weak and obsolete. “Imagine a law that says if you are caught pirating a creative work, the maximum offence is three months imprisonment with an option of N 5,000 fine. Imagine the guy who pirated October 1, who must have raked in about N100 million; if such a person is caught, they would ask him to pay a fine of N5,000. It was in this country that somebody pirated a producer’s film and later came to dash him a Jeep because he made a lot from his film.”
To him, the government should revisit the existing law and update it by making the punishment stiffer. In other climes, culprits are sent to between 10 and15 years imprisonment without an option of fine. If there will be option of fine, it must be a huge amount that will discourage the culprit from venturing into it again
“In the alternative, you can bring the type of law introduced in Anambra State by former governor, Peter Obi. The law says that if you commit kidnapping and armed robbery and you are caught, the house you are living in will be confiscated and destroyed. That act drastically reduced criminal tendencies in the state. This option could also be applied to piracy.”
Way out
Stakeholders in the entertainment industry cannot hide their feeling that total extermination of piracy is the only way they can keep their business afloat. Kelani believes that a new law should be enacted to rank piracy among serious crimes like armed robbery or narcotics crimes, adding that all the stakeholders should take up the challenge.
But Okoye said beyond that, the houses in Alaba which are notorious for this nefarious act should be impounded, levelled and taken over by government. “This will discourage the landlords in that area to give their buildings to pirates,” he said.
A former president of the Association of Nigerian Theatre Practitioners (ANTP), Prince Jide Kosoko, regretted that Yoruba films have suffered more in the hands of the pirates. “Pirates compile as many as 10 Yoruba films into a single DVD and start selling it to people without the permission of the producers of the films,” he lamented.
Kosoko said the government has a big role to play for piracy to be exterminated. He said: ”We artistes are handicapped on this issue. Each day, pirates are killing us gradually. Something urgent should be done before they send us out of business.”
Veteran actor-turned-politician, Richard Mofe-Damijo, canvassed for the setting up of a special tribunal to handle cases of piracy, saying it will go a long way to check the menace. RMD, as he is popularly called by his admirers, pointed out that the tribunal would spell out the punishment or compensation for any pirated work of art since what is obtainable now is too low and insignificant to minimise the loss.
According to him, the body of the law guiding piracy in the country is okay, but the manner of the policing is nothing to be proud of. “Existing laws are good, but what is needed to add is maybe setting up a special tribunal to handle cases of piracy and step up the punishment or compensation for piracy, because right now, it is too low and insignificant,” he said.
