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‘How Nollywood can help itself’
Monday, 18 July 2011 11:36
PRINCE BUBACARR SANKANUFor Africans, the first and most important thing is a business model that will take advantage of the new digital media distribution technologies. If we look at the Nigerian film industry which is pivotal, the current business model of producers, marketers and distributors serves as stimulus package for pirates and all those parasites who survive on intellectual property rights infringement. Movie marketers need to synchronise the release of Nigerian movies in such a way that the loopholes can be identified and sealed effectively.
The technology for it is here. We all know that new media technology lowered the entry barriers that made the new Nigerian film industry possible in the first place. The same digital technology is making copyright abuse easy for lazy parasites. It is a double-edged sword. There are countries that are however
amending their copyright laws to accommodate this new digital media challenges. In Germany for instance, film rights-owners can ask Internet Service Providers (ISP), to provide the Internet Protocol (IP), addresses of movie prates so their computers can be located and, with the help of law enforcement agencies confiscated and presented as evidence in court. This law has spill over effects across Europe and beyond. As a Diaspora-based Pan African stakeholder, we will benefit from this law and our Nigeria and continental brothers and sisters will be covered as well.I have initiated a 10-year Nollywood rebranding project (2008-2018) and the Pan African Film Copyright Protection Society (PAFPCPS), is one concrete milestone of this decade-long project that seeks to address this problem of rights abuse. The Pan African Film Copyright Protection Society (PAFPS), as the name implies, is a Diaspora-based International voluntary non-profit member-based Organisation out to make life difficult for pirates who violate the film copyright of its members. PAFCPS is open to anyone who owns or holds rights for cinematographic and similar audiovisual works. The organisation works beyond borders and beyond segments. The pirates do not care whether a movie is Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Akan, Kiswahili, Ibibio, Edo, Nigeria, Ghanaian or South African. They will pirate any good work they lay their hands on.
Right now, consumers are not nominated to pay for quality due to the current business model of Nigerian and Ghanaian distributions. The market is still flooded. Those who watch movies on TVs are not motivated to buy their own copies. The VCD/DVD market and the TV markets are competing with each other at the detriment of filmmakers who are partly to blame for their quickie mentality. TV is good for publicity but so far, apart from the image exposure, Nigerian/Ghanaian producers are not seeing the benefits. For example 100,000 people watching a particular Nigerian movie on TV does not mean 100,000 sold original CD/DVD copies. We have a paradoxical situation through which Nigerian movies and stars are getting popular but the actual sale of original VC/DVDs are either stagnating or dropping. When did you last hear that a Nigerian movie sold say, 100,000 verifiable original VCD/DVD copies? Even twenty thousand sold copies are celebrated as tickets to paradise. We should be rational and not allow ourselves to be carried away by the emotional hype and quick money. We have a lot of work to do. You will hear stakeholders complaining about piracy but when you present them with a plan for addressing the issue, some of them will be dragging their feet and giving lazy excuses.
The German law enforcement officers and their EU counterparts will always open their doors to us. African countries are parties to the WIPO Copyright Treaty and members of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO), and African Intellectual Property Organisation (OAPI), will support our desire to follow pirates in their respective countries. We know governments cannot do everything and film business is not government business except in religious and political dictatorships. We want government to solve the distribution mess without changing our model of flooding the markets with DVD/VCD every forthnight. Mr. Emeka Mba, the Director-General of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), did his best by coming out with a new distribution framework and it was aggressively resisted. The new framework, with all its shortcoming, is a brave initiative that needs to be given the chance. I have developed an alternative model that I will present to my fellow stakeholders if I am invited to the next comprehensive review of the NFVCB’S new distribution framework.
The government of President Goodluck Jonathan has created a $200 million intervention fund for the creative industry. I just did a review of all the Nigerian film stakeholders and I am sorry to say 95 percent of them do not meet the requirement to tap into this fund. So, they either have to change their business models or the implementing agencies will have to lower their barriers.
Source: nationalmirroronline.net
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Comments
Hey...without the glasses and red shirt..you quite a Hunk...My Nigerian Princess wants your autographed picture.
I now understand why all those pretty african women fall at your feet.
I'm quite jealous
You have a brilliant future ahead.
Hooray !!! for Nollywood.
You suggest:
"How Nollywood can help itself".
May I suggest by committing "Hari Kari"? Or better still by falling under Taliban Sharia Rule? Nollywood is the "OPIUM OF THE AFRICAN PEOPLE" - all the STEREOTYPICAL BAD things about URBAN AFRICA is promoted there (And because URBAN African women spend 28 hours a EACH DAY on the sofa infront of the TV, NOLLYWOOD is largely responsible for the Modern-Day Lazy and Overweight Afican FAT BOTTOMS
His Highness hail Haile Halake.
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