Nigerians Looking To Crack Down On Movie Piracy, Despite Thriving Nollywood Movie Industry
from the missing-the-point dept
One thing that's common as you look through the history of intellectual property law is how stronger IP laws almost inevitably lag increases in creative or inventive output. Of course, this flies in the face of everything that we're told about intellectual property law, about how it's necessary to incentivize such creativity or inventiveness. In fact, if that were the case, we wouldn't see such creativity showing up in places with very lax or non-existent laws. And yet, time and time again we do. For example, we've highlighted how the movie industries in Nigeria, China and India are thriving, despite very lax laws and enforcement. In fact, with Nigeria, we've discussed how widespread "piracy" was a large part of what helped "Nollywood" succeed.So what's happening now? Once again, after this explosive outgrowth in creativity, then people look to put in place these laws. Loricnet points us to the news that in Lagos, Nigeria, officials have been looking at technological solutions to "deal with" the issue of infringement. Officials are reviewing five separate technologies, and the "winner" will be rolled out for use by city officials. At least some of the solutions on the "short list" appear to be focused on providing new business models and greater sharing, rather than using technology to "block" certain activities, but some of them appear to be the same old DRM.
I'm not sure why politicians are getting involved here, but it really does highlight how, once again, intellectual property law is not about incentivizing creation (that already happened without it), but rather about protectionism for those already there. It's the same thing we've seen in the past. After there's an outburst of creativity, those who were there first don't want new competitors, and they run to the government for greater protectionism against competition, and the preferred tools: greater IP laws and greater IP enforcement. Sad to see the same thing happening yet again.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
There is zero enforcement in Nigeria, zero capabilities to enforce imaginary property, piracy is rampant and an entire industry flourished despite of it?
That is ludicrous, it can't happen nowhere.
Maybe the copycrazy people now can claim that enforcement cubs real sea piracy if those pirates turn to bootlegging instead LoL
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Logical really
I'm not saying I don't think that copyright can't "incentivise" too if done correctly (after all a better chance of being paid at least for a while is almost certainly an incentive), but it strikes me that the "derivative works" portion of copyright especially in the massively broad definition it exists in UK/US now is a blatantly obvious disincentive to creation.
Why does copyright seem to allow you to "own" an idea when, for example, patent doesn't?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
Think you failed your "Spot Sarcasm" check there. Certainly either you or I need a detector overhaul and I think mine's working just fine.....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
I can't figure out if it is sarcastic or not.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Good Options
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
Free facts are from the thieves that want everything to be free, if you want your own facts go buy them don't still facts from others.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Soon you inbox will be filled with threates like....
We know you are pirate and will be taking you to court to sue you for $50,000. Or you can settle now quickly for $2500.
As our banking system is having problems we will also need your help to transfer this money. You can get a 10% discount if you supply us with your SIN, bank account and pin number, and mother's maiden name.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Except then the **AA will probably sue for patent infringement on the business model. You are allowed to patent business process now aren't you? It's the one they seem to use so I wouldn't be surprised if they'd patented it....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Other problems...
[ link to this | view in thread ]