NCC staff scared of losing their jobs

*As Zeb Ejiro suggests CMO against piracy
The story of Nollywood would be incomplete if the name, Zeb Ejiro, is not mentioned. Being one of the pioneer filmmakers in the industry, he voiced out his frustration with the industry during a chat with Saturday Beats, recently.
Like many of his colleagues who have lost fortunes to stolen intellectual property, the iconic filmmaker opined that the Nigerian Copyright Commission is doing little or nothing to curb the excesses of pirates.
He said: “The truth of the matter is this, if today the government is told to go to Idumota because the Nigerian currency is being counterfeited there, they will bring the place down. But when it comes to our industry, the government is not ready to fight piracy. Some people at the high table are benefitting, because those behind piracy are richer than those who own the pirated works. They are making more money and of course, making returns to these people.
“Therefore, government should scrap the NCC. In most countries in the world today, they don’t have anything like that; NCC is outdated and archaic. It was a system that Britain adopted in the past but it is no longer in use. What they do now is to use the Collecting Management Organisations.
“This is how the CMO operates: if I have a movie, I would sign my right to a law firm and that’s all. Without having to bother myself, given that it is the duty of the law firm to monitor and protect the job, I would not have to undergo any stress myself. It is the law firm’s duty to go to the streets with the police, arrest and prosecute those hawking the films; the police then put them in jail or they pay fine. Whatever comes from the proceeds, a certain amount could be remitted to the original owner and the firm would get its own share.
“I have been to so many meetings where we have told them about this issue, but they always complain that if we stop this thing (piracy), they are going to lose their job, so those people are fighting for them to remain in the NCC. You give me the power, and NCC will pack up the next moment because they are not important; they are not doing anything to safeguard infringement rights in this country. The best thing to apply is CMOs, that way we would solve the problem.”
The film maker also believes that if every police department has copyright unit, the war against piracy could be won.
“We have victims around; look at some of my friends’ movies; October 1 and Thirty Days in Atlanta. Unless Kunle Afolayan is going to make his money from other areas than the sales of DVD because what those people did to him is not fair.
“If every police department or post have a copyright unit then the war against piracy could be won or at least be curbed. A copyright police officer must be educated about the copyright laws. For instance, if somebody steals something and the policeman sees the person, he will not wait for people to call him, he’ll just arrest the person straight away.
“We are trying to have the Lagos State government pass a legislation to ensure that if you have to sell movie, you have to have an office or shop where we can come to verify you as one of the distributors. For those on the streets, it becomes illegal to hawk films. That way we can reduce copyright infringements,” he said