In this piece, TUNDE AJAJA examines the incidence of piracy in Nigeria’s entertainment industry and why the menace may not disappear quickly

Years ago, his entry into any gathering or venue used to draw huge cheers and standing ovation; he was a classic artiste-cum-comedian, especially in the south-western part of Nigeria.

Usually styled in his vintage clothing, tobacco pipe hung at one corner of his mouth and his oversized pair of glasses, with no lens, that sit comfortably on his nostrils, Pa Moses Olaiya Adejumo, aka Baba Sala, was a household name who led the chart in his specialties; drama, comedy and music. In fact, his appearance alone could make one laugh and fall off a chair.

But in the morning of Thursday, December 4, 2017, Baba Sala’s entry into the hall only evoked pity and sadness that could easily move anyone to tears. He had none of his signature on, not even his oversized pair of glasses or his pipe. Perhaps, those were the last things on his mind, as his eyes looked swollen and wet.

Looking frail and weak as he walked – limped, more like – slowly, with so much effort and pain, towards the seat reserved for him at the venue of the press briefing to herald the release of his biography and to raise funds for his treatment, having been down with stroke, the 82-year-old comedian had become a shadow of his old, vibrant self. No thanks to those who pirated the movie he invested all his funds in.

Things took a tragic turn for the worse years ago when his movie, Orun Mooru, which gulped most of his capital, was pirated. The incident did not only wreck his investments, it shattered his career, dragged him off the scene and plunged him into huge debt that he only struggled to wriggle out from years after.

“My whole world crashed. The film was dubbed by some wicked people and pirated as original. I had gone to borrow over N1.5m from a bank for the realisation of the movie  but I automatically became indebted and I sold most of my properties to settle the debt,” he had lamented about the impact of the incident.

Now battling for survival, one could presume that the ace comedian would have been in perfect health if his work had not fallen into the hands of pirates.

But such is the fate that has befallen a number of producers in Nigeria’s movie industry, popularly known as Nollywood. And notably, their CDs and DVDs are usually copyright protected.

While some could contend that Baba Sala’s movie was pirated as far back as 1980s,  the menace has only waxed stronger and the perpetrators more daring, expanding their nefarious activities day by day, wrecking companies, sending producers and distributors into depression and some to their early graves.

Just last year, a notable movie producer and distributor, Gabriel Okoye, aka Gabosky, lamented that he was left bankrupt after his N500m movie distribution company, which he set up with a loan from the Bank of Industry, was wrecked by the activities of pirates. He was plunged into a huge debt and even pointed out that the bank was on the verge of taking over the properties he used as collateral.

He said he was to distribute ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ but that before he finished printing the movie, the pirated copies had flooded the streets, and of course at a ridiculous price. While still recovering from the huge loss and shock, he was to distribute AY’s ’30 Days in Atlanta’ but before he could say Jack Robinson, the CDs were on the streets, courtesy of the pirates.

And then, when he travelled to South Africa to negotiate the distribution of Kunle Afolayan’s ‘October 1’ movie, he said he was still in South Africa when he got information from Nigeria that the film was already on the streets.

These, respectively, led to devastating loss for the producers of the movies.

Pained by the actions of the pirates, Afolayan, a respected movie maker, himself had taken to his Twitter account to rain curses on the pirates; pleading the “wrath of God” to strike the pirates. Apparently disturbed by the development, he then resorted into begging people not to buy the pirated copies.

He had said, “Pirated copies of October 1 film are now released by the pirates and they are everywhere on the streets. We have been announcing and alerting the people in government for years. Is this how we will fold our hands and look? It is my turn today, it may be yours tomorrow. I am devastated. It’s a hostile country. Please do not buy.”

As of the time the pirates had released their version of the movie, Afolayan said he had yet to realise half of the money he spent to make the multiple awards winning movie, not to talk of making profit on the investment.

Rightly so, the menace of piracy has aptly been described as a cankerworm and monster that could destroy the entertainment industry, if not checked.

Nigeria’s film industry: big sector, little reward

The Nigerian film industry is reputed to be the second largest film producer in the world, in terms of quantity, second to India’s Bollywood. The National Film Corporation said in April 2018 that Nollywood produces an average of 50 movies in a week, which would translate into about 2,600 movies in a year.

The film industry has even been described as a goldmine. According to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, one of the largest professional services firms and one of the Big Four auditors in the world, Nollywood is estimated to generate more than $7bn (about N2.5tn) for the national economy and accounted for 1.4 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product in 2016, as revealed by the International Monetary Fund.

The film industry is equally a major employer of labour, as it is said to employ over a million people, directly and indirectly.

Hence, apart from crude oil, which Nigeria is a big exporter of, its huge human resource; and a few other things, entertainment is one other sector that has put Nigeria on the global map.

The movies, which are produced locally in the three dominant languages – Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, and English, are a delight to many both across the continent and even beyond. Across the length and breadth of the country, film making is big business.

Stressing the prospect of the industry, PWC, in its Entertainment and Media Outlook, African perspective, covering 2017 to 2021, added, “Total cinema revenue is set to reach $22m in 2021, rising at 8.6 per cent compound annual growth rate over the forecast period as Nigerian films gain international recognition and investment increases.

Piracy, the cankerworm ‘sinking’ Nollywood

But, in spite of the prominent and even enviable place Nollywood occupies on the world stage, findings show that it has not translated into huge fortune or huge returns for practitioners in the industry. In other words, despite the acceptability of the movies, actors and producers barely have anything tangible to show for their efforts and hard work.

This is because much of the profit (returns) is cornered by pirates who have almost hijacked the industry under the watchful eyes of security agencies and the different regulatory bodies. So, while the producers toil morning and night, the pirates sit back, wait for a movie to be released, pirate it and of course laugh to the bank afterwards.

Baba Sala had said, “The debt I incurred when my movie was pirated was so enormous and I was the first actor to be hard hit by pirates. Even though the Oyo State government helped by giving me some contracts and people like Chief Obafemi Awolowo helped, most of the funds went into the settlement of the debt.”

Meanwhile, in 2013, the Nigerian Copyright Commission revealed that Nigeria was losing $1bn to piracy.

And in its 2017 annual report, which was released in February 2018, the NCC said in the year under review, its operatives conducted 99 anti-piracy surveillances and 49 strategic operations in certain locations across the country during which they were able to arrest 70 suspected pirates and recover 1,301,649 quantities of pirated copyright works, including DVDs and CDs, all valued at N1.26bn.

The report said, “The sum of N1,260,646,600.00, which was the total value of pirated materials removed in the course of the anti-piracy operations in the year 2017, represents income that would have been lost by government and copyright owners across the country to people engaged in the criminal act of copyright piracy.”

As if that is not pathetic enough, the Director-General of NCC, Mr. Afam Ezekude, on the occasion of the World Intellectual Property Day celebration in April 2018, revealed that between 2011 and 2018, the NCC in its 346 anti-piracy operations seized over 9,307,615 units of copyright protected works, valued at a whopping N9,601,517,010. In the course of the operation, 721 suspected pirates were nabbed while the commission secured 58 criminal convictions.

He added that in collaboration with the Nigerian Customs, the NCC, between 2011 and 2018, impounded 28 containers containing pirated copyright protected works, confiscated 749,316,187 units of pirated works and contrivances, valued at N10.3bn.

These imply that between 2011 and 2018, goods worth over N19bn were confiscated, while original authors of the works suffered frustration, huge debt and economic loss.

“The Nigerian economy loses billions of dollars annually to piracy. We have a very large market in this country and that reflects in the amount of loss that we incur, because if the pirates are allowed to continue to do their illegal activities, the government is losing tax revenue because the pirates don’t pay tax,” Afam had said in 2013.

It should, however, be noted that these figures only captured the ones NCC was able to seize, not covering those that had already found their way to people’s homes, through sales in the market, and those still in the market that the NCC could not track.

According to a report by the Africa Section of the United Nations Department of Public Information, the World Bank estimates that for one genuine copy sold in the market, nine other pirated copies must have been sold, which underscores the prevalence of piracy.

But beyond the huge revenue loss to movie producers and tax loss to government on account of the sale of pirated works locally, the UN report, on its Africa Renewal website, pointed out that most of the copies exported out of Nigeria are pirated copies.

The report specifically pointed out that due to the dearth of legal channels for exporting the movies, the producers and movie makers do not earn any return from the exported copies, and that by extension, government earns no revenue from such.

The report quoted a World Bank Finance and Private Sector Specialist, Ms. Chioma Nwagboso, as saying, “In terms of exports, these movies are purchased and watched across the world — in other African countries, Europe, USA and the Caribbean, and almost all the exports are pirated copies.”

Meanwhile, popular Nigerian film director, producer and actor, Mr. Charles Igbinovia, popularly known as Charles Novia, told our correspondent that his company incurred loss that ran into hundreds of millions of naira while the industry must have lost billions.

He said, “The worth of what we have lost to piracy would be in hundreds of millions on a personal level. Computing mine with the rest of my colleagues who have produced over the years would amount to billions of naira. Piracy is worse than a cankerworm of destruction. We sweat as creative people and the pirates reap from doing nothing but steal and pilfer from our sweat.”

When asked how many of his works had been pirated, he said, “Every one. Pirates don’t choose. They swoop. Like a deadly eagle in flight, they swoop on any creative work out there, especially works with name or brand recognition like mine.”

Likewise, many other movie producers in the industry told Saturday PUNCH that most of their works had been pirated and that nobody in the industry was spared as long as the movies were dubbed on CDs or DVDs.

Comedian and film producer, Ayo Makun, had told our correspondent in a phone interview that all his movies were pirated, in which lost some money.

Also, Kunle Afolayan, had said in his tweet in 2015 that, “The pirates already have ‘October 1’ and they have been threatening the distributor that they will release this week. They have released ‘Phone swap,’ ‘Tango with me,’ ’30 days’ and many more.”

The list in endless, as almost every producer has a bitter story to share.

Popular actor and comedian, Mr. Babatunde Omidina, aka Baba Suwe, has not been a happy man for years since his movies were pirated.

Sadly, however, it would seem that beyond the glamour and smiles in front of the cameras, many filmmakers in the Nigerian space are reeling in deep pains and frustration.

Meanwhile, PWC said even though Nigeria is one of the fastest growing countries in the world in the media and entertainment industries, appearances could be deceptive, noting that the activities of the pirates had also limited cinema visits in Nigeria.

PWC, in its report, said, “Industries such as the world-renowned Nollywood, for instance, don’t generate that much measurable revenue for Nigerian Entertainment and Media due to issues such as piracy, hampering official cinema owners and film vendors.

“The wide availability of pirated films has traditionally limited cinema visits in Nigeria, but admissions are on the rise and the number of screens is set to increase in 2021, enabling more communities across the country to visit the cinema.”

In comparison, the PWC report pointed out, however, that the music industry where piracy had somewhat been better managed had been considerably profitable for the artistes and other practitioners. “In music, ringtones and ringbacks continue to make good running, thanks largely to their piracy-proof nature,” it added.

Meanwhile, some persons knowledgeable about the industry told our correspondent that there are times producers do not even recoup their production cost, not to talk of making profit, all due to the menace.

This also explains why actors are poorly remunerated. Some filmmakers also pointed out that the ugly menace could dampen creativity in the industry, as actors, scriptwriters and producers would barely give their best, when there is possibility, nay certainty, that the work would end up in the hands of pirates.

In the PWC report, for example, it was stated that even though Nigeria makes the second highest films in the world, in terms of volume, the “production value is poor and most films are of very low budget, financed privately and shot and edited in a matter of weeks.”

But speaking on the number of days some producers spend to produce a movie, Charles said the time it takes to shoot a movie varies, but that it was untrue for people to rush to locations to shoot movies.

He said, “From conceptualisation to execution, each of my movies took months and there are some screenplays that take years due to meticulous planning. People only calculate the number of location days and don’t realise that pre-production and post-production take time. There are times a movie is shot on location in two months but post-production might take a whole year. It’s never short for a filmmaker who harps on quality and getting it right.”

Cinema to the rescue?

It is worthy of note that pirates swing into action the moment a movie comes out on the DVD and in some cases, they find ways to steal the master tape. This informs why filmmakers now take their movies to the cinemas, hoping to go home with the much they could make from the cinemas.

Charles said, “Pirates don’t have a time frame to pirate our works. Immediately it comes out on DVD or is released at the cinemas or online, those guys have an uncanny network of cronies who somehow get a copy and pirate immediately. That is why producers who release movies at the cinemas don’t release anymore on DVDs. They have decided to count their losses in that sector and ignore the residual income from DVDs completely.

“This has been the trend in the past five years, though technology has made the bulk of the audience move online and on Pay TV to watch our movies rather than DVDs, which are becoming obsolete in Nigeria for a certain segment of the population as online and downloads are increasing. Once we get our data and broadband policy better in Nigeria, producers will enjoy better returns and I think piracy would naturally die within the next decade.”

How government is encouraging pirates

Despite its devastating economic implications, the psychological discomfort it inflicts on its victims and the despicable nature of the act – reaping from another man’s intellectual work – piracy in Nigeria, at the moment, is an attractive venture, because the punishment for infringing on or theft of another person’s intellectual property is best described as a slap on the wrist.

According to the prevailing law, Copyright Act, Chapter C28, Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2004, anyone charged for pirating cinematograph films, musical works, sound recordings, etc., is only liable on conviction to a fine of N1,000 or less for every copy dealt with or terms not exceeding five years imprisonment or to both. This, according to practitioners in the industry, is ridiculous, unfortunate and could never deter anyone.

“That is why the illegal trade has continued to spread,” one of them said.

Specifically, Section 18(1)(c) of the Act said, “Any person who makes, causes to be made, or has in his possession, any plate (disc), master tape (disc), machine, equipment or contrivance for purpose of making any infringing copy of any such work; shall, unless he proves to the satisfaction of the court that he did not know and had no reason to believe that any such copy was not an infringing copy of any such work, or that such plate, master tape, machine, equipment or contrivance for purpose of making any infringing copy of any such work, be guilty of an offence under this Act and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of an amount not exceeding N1,000 for every copy dealt with in contravention of this section or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding five years, or to both such fine and imprisonment.”

Given the much havoc this menace has wrecked already, some entertainers wonder why government had waited this long without taking a decisive step on it. “It goes beyond making arrests or parading people; why not address it from the root by changing that law?” an actor queried.

Perhaps, this explains why piracy has continued to grow in leaps and bounds; no severe punishment.

However, there may be some hope for practitioners in the film industry as the Federal Executive Council in June approved the 2017 draft Copyright Bill, which according to Ezekude, would promptly be forwarded to the National Assembly for passage.

Apparently convinced that the prevailing punishment for offenders was incapable of deterring anyone from involvement in piracy, the NCC DG had noted that the bill, upon passage, would address issues of copyright infringements, expand the scope of copyright offences and provide more deterrent punishments for copyright violations.

Also, a source in NCC confided in our correspondent that major players in the industry made their inputs in the new bill, expressing hope that the provisions, when passed into law, would severely punish pirates.

Anti-piracy law, the ultimate solution?

Meanwhile, Charles contended that even though there should be “harsher penalties” for offenders, people in the film industry should engage the pirates more on how they could add to the value chain of the industry “legitimately” instead of crippling the whole revenue chain. He said it was unfortunate that there seems to be a deliberate ignorance on the part of the government on the impact of piracy on the economy.

He added, “If they (pirates) see that they can actually be useful and grow the industry incrementally, they might use their networks for legitimate distribution. It’s a minority opinion, but I think it’s something to look at. Those who refuse to follow the legitimate path can then be prosecuted.”

Notably, piracy is not a Nigerian problem; it’s somewhat global, but many countries have found ways of minimising it and punishing offenders severely.

In a report titled, ‘Smooth Sailing: Why the Indian film industry remains extremely successful in the face of massive piracy,’ published in the Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, Harvard Law School, the author, Brandon Hammer, said only effective enforcement could make even strict intellectual property laws effective and that the option of cinemas should never be ignored.

In fact, in 2016 alone, over 2.2 billion movie tickets were sold in India

Efforts to know when the Senate would work on the bill and pass it into law were not successful as the Senate Spokesperson, Sabi Abdullahi, was not reachable as of press time.

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