Winning piracy wars in African film:

Mobile technology contributes to the fight

The market for the film industry has expanded within a short time after its introduction into the sub-Saharan African market, and it continues to receive world recognition for its growth and development.

In fact, the clamour for African movies has greatly boosted prospects for the film industry. In the past, most viewers would have preferred to watch western and Hindi movies, but this trend has changed with the passage of time. 

Today, African movies are a means of entertainment and relaxation as they contribute in no small measure to alleviating the stress and strain of everyday life, many times through comedic storylines and overly-dramatic themes.

Nowadays, it is hard to avoid Nigerian, Ghanaian or South n movies, and music. The African movie industry is led by Nigeria’s Nollywood, which churns out about 50 full-length features a week. This makes Nollywood the world’s most prolific film industry allowing millions of Africans to watch Nigerian films every day.

However, it is sad to note that the contribution of African movies to economic, social and most importantly, national stability in Africa is unfortunately impacted by several challenges. 

Piracy is a major challenge for the industry. For example, available figures show that in Nollywood each film is replicated into 50 to 200 thousand CDs/DVDs -- distributed to markets, video clubs and eventually various homes,; a majority of which is illegal. 

While piracy accounts for almost 7% of all global trade, Nigeria accounts for 80% of the pirated international music CDs. This trend has a subsistent damaging effect on the country’s economy and global trade. 

According to Business Software Alliance (BSA), in sub-Saharan Africa the highest piracy countries are Zimbabwe 92%; Cameroon 83%; and Nigeria 83%. 

The effort to stop piracy has been a constant battle in this part of the continent. Even though the general public may think of piracy as a victimless crime, this form of copyright infringement damages the creative professional’s ability to earn a living from his work and discourages productivity.

Many organisations have tried as much as they can to fight against piracy, including the Nigerian Copyrights Commission and the Copyright Society of Nigerian (COSON).

However, first and foremost fighting piracy must start from the top. For the African movie industry to thrive, African governments must take a stand to pass and implement policies that will eliminate piracy. That said, individuals and private business people can also help to fight this.

In the last couple of years ICT products have made great progress in introducing products that have greatly contributed to the fighting piracy. Most notable is mobile tech start-up Afrinolly.

Created in 2011, the idea for Afrinolly was inspired after a Google event. During the event, the Afrinolly team realised that there was an urgent need to develop a product that would be relevant and help sustain and propel the African film industry.

Afrinolly is a mobile app that enables African entertainment enthusiasts to watch African movies, trailers and short-films produced in the African movie markets. Content includes: African Music Videos, Comedy Skits, Series and Bollywood Movies available on smart phones, as well as entertainment news. A fee is charged depending on the content downloaded.

The app, which is free, remains at the forefront of maximising technology and mobile options for distributing Africa-generated video content; it has grown to be the most downloaded Entertainment app designed and developed in Africa.

Since winning the Google Android Developer Challenge for Africa in 2011, Afrinolly is now focused primarily on creating a marketplace, building capacity for short-film making, and working closely with film makers and industry outside Nigeria to build international collaboration. 

In essence, Afrinolly has the ability to reduce piracy in the African film industry by creating easy access to movies via spearheading a new film distribution model through mobile technology.

Afrinolly is not doing this alone. In Nigeria Afrinolly has also partnered with ICT and telecommunications company giant MTN. With this partnership, Afrinolly ensured that filmmakers receive royalties for their creative sweat.  Since its inception, Afrinolly has been wildly successful. There are currently over four million downloads of the app, and it has been launched in all MTN’s 16 operating countries of Africa. 

Afrinolly is also contributing greatly to building the film industry. For example, it initiated and hosts the Afrinolly Short Film Competition, which has been a great success. It is also opening the Afrinolly Space, a creative hub patterned after YouTube where filmmakers can learn, collaborate and create as well as get their content out.

Many film producers and directors now rely on apps such as Afrinolly which have become a genuine avenue to curb piracy and help create easier distribution. 

The arrival of Internet-based mobile tech and other digital innovations as a solution to piracy in the film industry also has its challenges. According the International Telecommunications Union, less than 5% of Africa’s population has access to the Internet.

This means that to have a lasting solution, serious efforts must be put in place to improve Internet penetration in Africa. 

While it is not realistic to expect the elimination of all piracy in the shortest time, policymakers can strive to improve the situation to the benefit of authors and rights-holders, manufacturers and indeed local industries here in Africa, especially in the ECOWAS movie market.

To effectively protect creative works generated by the entertainment industry, African governments must address the widely-held belief that intellectual property protection is a western concept irrelevant in Africa. 

Debate about whether and to what extent African artists and musicians deserve copyright protection must be divorced from the broader debate about the merits and demerits of global strengthening for intellectual property rights. 

Governments must also seriously address the numerous factors that undermine effective enforcement of laws in the country; including corruption, lack of coordination among the responsible agencies, lack of accountability, and lack of resources. 

However, for enforcement to make sense and be effective, the underlying law must be appropriate, balanced, understood by the general public, and a product of broad-based debate and participation.