Piracy: Nollywood producer floors NCC, MyTV in court

DG NCC, Afam Ezekude

The stage is now set for a fresh tussle involving Nollywood producer, Charles Uche Ayika,  the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), and a cable television station, MyTV, following allegations of copyright infringements of the film, ‘Arrows of Love,’ by Ayika.

This is coming on the heels of a court judgment by Justice E. S Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja in favour of the producer, who was prosecuted by the NCC for ‘obstructing an officer of the commission from carrying out his duties’. The judge had in the ruling noted that NCC was on a vengeance mission by prosecuting the producer who had earlier written a petition to President Goodluck Jonathan and the Attorney General of the Federation (Adoke Bello), when it appeared NCC was reluctant to prosecute MyTV for the violation.

MyTV had unethically acquired the film from Godson Uzor Nwosu of Guniks Investments, the current chairman of the Onitsha movie Marketers’ Association and Romanus Ibiam Eze of Romey Bright Productions.

Multichoice set to tackle commercial piracy

Oghuma

In an effort to curb the rising level of commercial piracy of Pay TV signals, MultiChoice, Nigeria’s leading provider of premium pay entertainment, has urged individuals or entities that use DStv services for public use without a commercial license to get a commercial license to enable them broadcast DStv content without litigation.

According to Caroline Oghuma, PR Manager, DStv, in a statement sent to SHOWBIZPLUSng,  MultiChoice gave commercial pirates the opportunity to convert to legal commercial broadcast in 2013.

“We want these subscribers to stay on the right side of the law, and those who are yet to convert are infringing on the copy right laws of Nigeria and will face appropriate penalties” she declared.

Oghuma, who explained that MultiChoice is working in association with the Nigerian Copyrights Commission (NCC) to stem the rising trend in commercial piracy, stated that early this year, officials of the NCC Lagos Zonal Office issued a 14 day deadline for hotels to obtain the appropriate commercial licenses for the broadcast of DStv channels in their hotels.

COSON on rampage, says 'operation no hiding place' is war without end

Okereke

SHOWBIZPLUSng can authoritatively report that the recent launch of the war against music copyright infringers in Nigeria by Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), the nation’s sole collective management organization for musical works and sound recordings in a campaign tagged ‘Operation No Hiding Place,’ is already cursing fear and panic among violators. 
Interestingly, the society headed by Chief Tony Okoroji, has equally announced that the necessary machinery has been put in place to ensure that it becomes impossible to deploy music in any business in Nigeria without the appropriate license.

This was made known by the Chief Licensing Officer of COSON, Mr. Chibueze Okereke in a press statement signed and sent to SHOWBIZPLUSng.