The
Copyright Society Of Nigeria (COSON) has sent felicitations to creative people
across Nigeria on the celebration of the World Intellectual Property Day, Tuesday,
April 26, 2016.
COSON said in a statement on
Tuesday by Chibueze Okereke, the World Intellectual Property Day
is a day set aside to focus on the producers of the works of the mind around
the world. The theme of this year's celebration is DIGITAL
CREATIVITY : REIMAGINED. And it is aptly themed, in this era of ever evolving
digital technology. Speaking on the day, COSON Chairman Tony OKoroji says that 'with the massive creative potentials that Nigeria has shown in popular music, enchanting movies, exciting literary materials, enthralling Choreography etc, there is little doubt that Nigeria has become an intellectual property super power'. According to him, 'as the nation battles with the present economic downturn a window of opportunity has appeared for Nigeria to fully harness the massive intellectual property endowment and process it for economic growth and provision of hundreds of thousands of well paid jobs for our citizens. In his words: All across the world today people are listening to Nigerian music and watching Nigerian movies, and anyone who cannot see the great potentials in these, is a Big Fool.
Also speaking on World Intellectual Property Day, A-list Singer and COSON Board member Azeezat Allen says 'Right now Intellectual property is our new crude oil and we must tap it fully'.
There has been growing agitations across the creative industry for the activation of the private copy levy scheme. With the advent of new technology, millions of people in the country no longer buy music cassettes, CDs or DVDs. They obtain their music by freely downloading, file sharing or using blue tooth technology and deny owners of the works and the investors in music significant revenue. To compensate for this huge loss, which threatens the survival of the creative industries, in many countries around the world, a small levy is charged on the gadgets used for this stealing of intellectual property.
About 23 years ago, Nigeria became the first country in Africa to provide for the levy in our laws. Sadly, since then, Nigeria has been unable to implement the scheme due to the nation’s choking bureaucracy.
Okoroji
says that this is the time for the government of President Buhari to give
matching orders to the Nigerian Copyright Commission and the Nigerian Customs
to activate the Private Copy Levy so that creators and investors in the
creative industries can get the true benefits of their labour.
The money
collected from the levy of such gadgets such as MP3s, MP4s, cellphones, memory
cards, flash drives, etc, is distributed through the collective management
system to the artistes, writers and producers whose music, movies and books are
stolen.
The
situation has made several international and domestic investors to flee the
country draining our nation of massive revenue, employment and growth. It is
widely believed that the activation of the private copy levy will provide some
succor to the creative industries.
