Audio-visual rights assoc gets NCC licence

Director General of NCC Mr. Afam Ezekude presented the certificate of approval to AVRS Thursday in Abuja.
The AVRS Chairman, Mah-mood Ali Balogun, was presented the certificate by the NCC boss and this is coming after two years efforts by World Intellectual Property Organisation, WIPO, in collaboration with the Nigeria Film Corporation and NCC.
Speaking during the ceremony which was attended by the crème de la creme of Nollywood actors, the NCC boss warned that the denial of payment of royalty for commercial use of creative content is no longer acceptable.
“Apart from the fact that it is a clear breach of the copyright law, it is also an act of sabotage which is targeted at destroying one of the most vibrant indigenous industries,” Ezekude said.
The NCC boss further disclosed that since January 2011 till date, the NCC has recorded significant achievements in the performance of its core mandate, adding that over 180 major anti-piracy operations have been carried out across the country with the arrest of 403 suspects and seizure of about 5.9 million units of pirated works with an estimated market value of N6.3 billion.
He said that the copyright e-registration platform was launched on July 25, 2014 and became accessible to the public, globally on August 1, 2014.
He said that the Nigerian Copyright Institute, the training and capacity building arm of the NCC, has also been upgraded to cater for national and sub-national training needs on copyright.
In his address, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) described the event as a milestone in NCC’s history.
According to the AGF, the approval of the Audiovisual Rights Society of Nigeria (ARSN) as a collective management organisation brings to three the number of collective management organisations currently licensed by the NCC to operate in the country.
He commended the NCC for the diligent process that culminated in the approval of the ARSN. “My office was especially impressed with the transparent nature of the processes, part of which provided opportunity for the general public to submit comments and input to the processes,”  the AGF said.