Afam Ezekude, director-general, Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), an agency with the responsibility of protecting the copyrights of artistes in the country.

Ezekude, a lawyer, risk manager and financial consultant is a seasoned financial services professional with over 20 years experience in compliance, enforcement and risk management gained in the UK and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asia) region.

He has held numerous global senior management roles in some of the world’s largest professional services companies including Watson Wyatt Worldwide and Mercer Limited.

Until his appointment as the DG of NCC, he was the director of Legal, Compliance and Risk Management with a leading UK stock broking firm in the City of London.

He gave a stewardship of his one-year foray into the Nigerian intellectual property management business in Abuja. Excepts by miebi senge.

Miebi

Anti-Piracy and Enforcement
In the last 14 months, the Commission stepped up the tempo of its anti-piracy operations. Numerous anti-piracy raids were conducted resulting in the seizure of more than 6,193,210 units of pirated copyright works estimated at N1, 291,185,000.00. The seized items included films, sound recordings, books, software and illegal broadcast equipment. A total of 145 suspects were arrested within the period. Many of the suspects were arraigned in court.
The anti-piracy operations have continued with more vigour this year. Several anti-piracy operations have already been carried out since the beginning of the year. Notably, two raids have been carried out in the notorious Alaba Market in Lagos. The last of the raids in Alaba was carried out in the early hours of Tuesday, 13th March, 2012.
The raids which took place in two shopping plazas led to the arrest of 6 persons while they were carrying out illegal duplication of CDs of various copyright works. More than N30 million worth of pirated CDs, VCDs, DVDs as well as CD duplicating machines; printers and printed CD Jackets used in the illegal activities were confiscated. The suspects and the seizures made were paraded during a press briefing by the Commission on 13th March, 2012. The Commission is carrying out further investigations to unmask their collaborators, and to also facilitate the commencement of their prosecution in court as soon as possible.
The Commission will no longer condone the use of Alaba Market as a haven for piracy. In the ensuing months, we will intensify surveillance activities to ensure that all illegal activities in the market are detected and apprehended. This project will be a continuous one until we are able to sanitize the market and rid it of all piracy activities, be it in terms of production or distribution.
On January 25, 2012, the Commission carried out a public destruction of 722, 000 units of pirated works and contrivances estimated at N6.5 billion. These items were among those confiscated during anti-piracy raids carried out in the literary, broadcast and optical disc industries between 2007 and 2011. Apart from the need to demonstrate publicly our zero tolerance policy towards piracy; we also considered it important to dispose of such pirated material in a manner that would ensure that they do not find their way into the channels of trade.

Prosecution
One of the cardinal policies of the Commission under my leadership is to ensure the effective prosecution of all suspects, for which we can establish clear evidence of infringement. The Commission currently has 63 ongoing criminal and civil cases at the various divisions of the Federal High Court. Between January 2011 and February 2012, we instituted 26 criminal cases covering the various categories of copyright infringement namely, books, CDs, software, and broadcast. So far, 18 of these cases have resulted in convictions of the accused persons with various levels of sentences imposed in accordance with the provisions of the Law.
The Commission is doing everything necessary to ensure that Justice is done in these cases in order to serve as deterrence to prospective infringers.
We will intensify efforts in bringing to book all copyright infringers arrested in order to underscore the need for respect of rights of creators in Nigeria; and to also demonstrate that Nigeria is no longer a safe haven for poachers of intellectual property rights.

Regulation of Copyright Industry
In the last one year, we have also taken steps to strengthen the implementation of the various regulatory interventions made by the Commission in order to encourage sound business practices and effective rights management in the copyright industries.
Operation of the Commission’s Copyright Notification Scheme which was commenced in 2005 has been enhanced with the introduction of customized software for processing of applications received from right owners. The Copyright Notification scheme is essentially a facility to enable the Commission maintain a data of authors and their works, and also enable authors to notify the Commission of the creation of their works or any transfer of rights in an existing work. The scheme which is voluntary helps to establish an independent evidence of the existence of a copyright work and the information associated with the work.
Between January 2010 and January 2012, a total of 4,480 copyright notification applications were received in the various categories of works and the Commission processed same and issued a total of 3,871 copyright notification acknowledgements while 609 applications were queried for various irregularities.
Under the Copyright (Optical Discs Plants) Regulations 2006, the Commission has continued to monitor operations of local optical discs manufacturers. This has led to a significant reduction in domestic piracy from point of production. The introduction of the mandatory use of International Federation of Phonographic Industry Source Identification Code by replicating plants and mastering facilities has tremendously improved the anti-piracy monitoring mechanism of the Commission. I am pleased to announce that there is 100 percent compliance with the Commission’s directive on the SID code. All legitimate CDs produced in Nigeria now carry the SID code. This has not only helped the Commission in its anti-piracy drive, but also enhances the profitability of the business of optical discs manufacturing. Our record shows that the number of replicating plants has risen from 10 in 2007 when the scheme commenced, to 16 in December 2011. Two new plants are currently undergoing registration process. The total number of production lines of all the plants has increased from 71 in 2009 to about 103 lines in December 2011.
The Commission has also taken steps to reposition the implementation of the Video rental regulations which was issued in 1999. The scheme was commenced as a means of addressing indiscriminate and unauthorized rental of movies in the video format, without recourse to right owners. In the ensuing years, various developments, including the changing format of packaging of movies, as well as the increased broadcast of home movies by television stations has impacted on the business of movie rentals. Consequently, we have revisited the operations of the scheme to enable it respond to these changes. Henceforth, the Commission expects all operators of video rental outlets to secure appropriate rental licenses from right owners of movies before putting such movies on rental. We shall ensure a vigorous enforcement of this directive in the coming months.

Regulation of Collective Management Regime
Collective management of copyright remains one of the cardinal mechanisms of bringing the gains of the Copyright system to right owners. The Commission has continued to build on the reforms of collective management commenced in 2007. Currently we are increasing our oversight on the two approved collective management Organizations; (the Reproduction Rights Organization of Nigeria (REPRONIG) (approved since 2001) and the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON)) to ensure that they operate within acceptable standards. We also want to ensure that the approved organizations deliver on their primary mandate of collecting royalties and distributing to their members.
We are pleased to note that COSON, the organization representing right owners of music and sound recordings made its first royalty distribution to its members since its approval in 2010, in December 2011. We have monitored the performance of the organization and are satisfied with the present state of operations. The Organization has through the recommendations of the Commission received various technical assistance of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Moreover, COSON has been admitted into the provisional membership of the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies (CISAC), the international organization representing the interest of Collective Management Organizations in the area of music and sound recordings.
The Commission is however concerned that despite the phenomenal development of the film industry in Nigeria, the industry is yet to have a platform of collective management to cater for the interest of right owners in that industry. The Commission encourages right owners to team up under a strong platform to work towards establishing such framework. The Commission as usual will provide the necessary regulatory guidance and support.

Public Awareness Interventions
In furtherance of its awareness creation policy, the Commission has deployed integrated media campaign to enhance public awareness on copyright issues as well as the sustained implementation of the Commission’s mandate. There has been effective, periodic media coverage of the Commission’s regulatory and enforcement interventions at the grassroots, in addition to other awareness measures including press conferences, publication and dissemination of information materials like pamphlets and handbills. I also decided to embark on special advocacy meetings with a cross-section of stakeholders, opinion leaders, traditional and religious leaders in the different geopolitical zones of the country. The essence of such meetings was to secure a critical endorsement by all strata of the society of the Commission’s campaigns and promotion of copyright culture.

Copyright Marshals’ Scheme
We are exploring all avenues of closer collaboration with our stakeholders. One of such platforms is the Copyright Marshals’ Scheme which will enable representatives of stakeholder organizations appointed by the Commission as Copyright Marshalls to participate in some enforcement activities of the Commission. The role of the Copyright Marshals would include mobilizing relevant right owners in identifying pirated works; sourcing for, and providing the Commission with intelligence on piracy activities; and assisting the Commission in awareness creation.
Technical Cooperation and Stakeholders Partnerships
In the last one year, the Commission has increased its collaboration with international development agencies and other non-governmental organizations, including the World Intellectual Property Organization ﴾WIPO﴿; the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA); United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), the International Federation of Phonographic Industry and the World Customs Organization ﴾WCO﴿. These collaborations have resulted in a number of cooperation agreements, principally aimed at boosting the institutional capacity of the Commission. In the year under review, the Commission executed the following Cooperation agreements:
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Strategic Co-operation on Copyright with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) of the United Kingdom in September 2011.
International Cooperation Agreement with Queensland University of Technology on Provision of Tuition Fee Scholarship to NCC Staff for Research in Intellectual Property Law and Entrepreneurship and;
An MoU on Teaching and Promotion of IP in Nigeria between with the African University of Science and Technology, Abuja.
Similarly the Commission’s active collaboration with national copyright stakeholders like Nigerian Publishers Association ﴾NPA﴿, Music Label Owners and Recording Industries Association of Nigeria ﴾MORAN﴿, MultiChoice Nigeria, and Microsoft; has enhanced the scope and effectiveness of the Commission’s antipiracy operations.

Challenges
The Commission has striven to deliver on its statutory mandate within the context of the general operating conditions of the public sector. However, the Commission is faced with a number of challenges, the most pertinent being the lack of prioritization of copyright matters in the national development plan; limited financial and infrastructural resources; manpower constraints; limited awareness; uncooperative attitude of some of the stakeholders; slow judicial processes; and weak border enforcement to control importation of pirated works.