Africa - Piracy: MOPPAN scribe canvasses for state copyright commission

The national secretary Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MOPPAN), Ahmad S. Alkanawi has called on the federal government to allow state governments establish state copyright commissions for effective war against piracy in the country.

He made the call in an exclusive interview with our reporter in Kano.

He emphasized that unless the state governments are given powers to establish copyright commissions the ongoing war against piracy will always remain a mirage despite its effects on the general economy.

He identified manpower constrain within the extant commission as an inhibitive factor for effective war against piracy in the country and thus agitated for the inclusion of copyrights law into the concurrent legislative list to give room for states to have their own copyright commissions.

‘’There is no proper policy of protection of rights in Nigeria because the only organization responsible for protecting copyrights is the Nigerian copyright commission and the Nigerian copyrights are not there only to protect movies; they also protect books, art, painting and many others. They are saddled the responsibility of protecting over 70 contents or industries.

‘’Take for instance, the northwest zonal office of Nigerian Copyrights Commission which is the largest covering 7 states, if you go to their office they don’t have adequate facilities and personnel for their operations. So tell me if you put 10 policemen in 7 states and you are expecting the 10 policemen to work effectively how could that be possible? We have been calling on federal government to put the copyright law in concurrent legislative list so that every state would be able to establish a copyright commission but they refused’’ he added.