Lagos – A multiple award-winning Nigerian artiste, Susan Peters, on Thursday commended producers who released their films on celluloid.
Peters told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the effort was a good way to check piracy.
She said films first go online after being on cinemas, before such films were relayed on DVD and VCD.
“In the process, the producer must have recouped his money.
“I hope as time goes on, there should be a way to curb piracy, because it is stealing,’’ she said.
The actress with over 50 films to her credit in Nollywood, noted that pirates needed to be punished because of what they do to people’s intellectual properties.
“Pirates are really dealing with us and our works and it is slowing down the pace of how movies will get to the general public.
“If films are on DVD or VCD, it will be faster getting to the people but the producers will lose everything.
“Through that, marketing and distribution will be faster but with piracy, it is slowed down, because our films go to cinemas straight,” she said.
According to Peters, piracy is a very bad disease; you have to be looking for the cure or medicine every minute.
“Piracy cannot be totally eradicated, even Hollywood has that also. The perpetrators do not want us to make money after producing our films or songs.
“They hang on our intellectual properties to feed themselves, it is very bad,” she said.
She, however, said that all hands should be on deck to curb piracy, saying that there was the need for the government and stakeholders in the film industry to take it seriously by meting stiffer punishments on pirates when caught.
NAN also reports that Peters was born into a military family from Idoma in Ado local government area of Benue.
She studied Computer Science at Asman English School and graduated in 1988.
She went ahead to study Television and Film at Video Waves and Camera Film School at Wuse, Abuja, and graduated in 2002.
She has acted in a lot of films, including “Batter Words,” “Husbands of Lagos,” “Freeze,” and “Rattle 2”. (NAN)