AUSTIN FAIR, Lagos
During his tenure as the President of the Performing Musicians Association of (PMAN), one of the cases maverick musician Charles Oputa, Charly Boy pursued vigorously was piracy and once embarked on a near physical combat with some elements perceived to be pirates inside the Alaba International Market in Lagos.
Although it was not enough to nip the piracy scourge in the bud, it curtailed their activities for some time. The culprits who feed fat on the intellectual property of others, seem to be unrepentant as successive governments of the union and other bodies have been battling effortlessly to stamp out the monster.
However, the recent collaboration between the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) and the National Films and Videos Censors Board (NFVCB) may be the needed elixir to do the magic.
In a bid to boost implementation of their respective mandates in the interest of the creative industry, they resolved their commitment to renewed interagency collaboration.
Director-General NCC, Mr John O. Asein Executive Director NFVCB, Alhaji Adedayo Thomas disclosed this at the signing of MOU to formalize their partnership regulation, enforcement and awareness creation in the country.
They have also agreed to strengthen their partnership for enhanced intelligence sharing, anti piracy operations and manpower development.
The agencies agreed that in the renewal of their long-standing relationship, both agencies would respect their separate but complementary mandates and support each other to support in effective service delivery in line with the Federal Government’s development plan for the creative sector.
The NCC DG noted that no agency could fight piracy alone and called for more joint anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting operations as well as joint sensitization exercises across the country.