Lagos – A Comedian, Abiodun Olopade, popularly known as MC Abbey, on Thursday urged all the tiers of government to take drastic measures against the recurring pirating of intellectual works of the nation’s artistes.
Olopade told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that an enduring structure needed to be in place to deal with the nefarious activities of those engaged in pirating of creative works.
“If governments make unbendable laws, practitioners will be able to make money from their content and put food on the table and enjoy the proceeds from their works.
“We also need structures in place for us to be able to carry out our activities in various places in the country.
“These are the major things that we need to be in place and once that is done by government, I think there will be no stopping us.
“The laws on ground are very flexible that is why we have not been able to do very well as a country in arts.
“We are just trying our best to work with the few things in place and available to use so that we will survive,’’ he told NAN.
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The comedian lamented that those engaged in piracy had continued to make a mockery of the effort of artistes to encapsulate their works on Visual Compact Discs (VCDs) and Compact discs (CDs).
“If we go further, to put our intellectual property in a VCD and DVD, they are usually there to make money than we the owners,’’ he said.
MC Abbey, however, refused to be drawn into making a recommendation on what could be done to those engaged in pirating of creative works if arrested.
“There can be no punishment that can be enough to stop them from their wicked activities. (NAN)