Piracy Makes Creativity Unattractive- Don

A lecturer at the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, Mr Nelson Ogbuanya on Thursday said that the inability to curb piracy was making creativity unattractive.

Ogbuanya told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that piracy had brought a huge loss to many intellectual property owners.

“It will bring depreciation in artistic quality and depth of creative work; it may lead to a decline in showcasing artistic and intellectual works to the world by Nigeria,’’ the don said.

He said that artistic and intellectual works were supposed to boost the nation’s image and showcase its cultural values in the comity of nations.

The lecturer said that if not checked, piracy could lead to a decline in foreign investment in Nigeria in the area of creative works.

“If someone spends time, money and efforts to create something unique and someone else copies the work without authorisation, he is depriving the other person of his right; it is robbery,” he said.

Ogbuanya expressed regrets that most of the end users of such works preferred patronising the pirates rather than the copyright owner.

“The economic implication is that there will be no incentive for the owner of the work, and the whole purpose of the Copyright Law is defeated,” the lecturer said.

He said that piracy had become more worrisome in this digital age when time-consuming and costly software programmes could easily be hacked and pirated.

Ogbuanya urged more commitment of all stakeholders in checking piracy, saying that Nigeria would strengthen its rebranding efforts through elimination of the menace.