Stakeholders' Perception of Piracy of Yoruba Nollywood Movies

Abstract

Nigeria has a vibrant home video movie production sector. Studies have been carried out on this sector but there is paucity of literature on the issue of piracy, and stakeholders seem to be in a quagmire over the issue, which is a bane of the industry. This study examined the issue of piracy as it affected the Yoruba Nollywood practitioners, with a view to highlighting the nature of piracy in the sector and understanding the perception of the major stakeholders.

The study adopted the Stakeholders' theory as its theoretical framework, and, in order to ascertain the perceptions of the stakeholders, data were sourced from the four key stakeholders of the movie sector in Nigeria. This involved the interviewing of three key players and the distribution of copies of a questionnaire to 200 viewers.

Findings show that piracy affected the movie industry negatively and producers and marketers struggle to eradicate this menace but to no avail. The interview conducted with the stakeholders revealed that piracy requires more stringent laws and penalties, as the industry had lost financial gains considerably. Viewers affirmed that the contributive factor to the problem is the high rate of movies released per week, while pirated copies are very cheap. A prominent producer is of the opinion that because of entertainment gratification, viewers tend to be nonchalant to the issue of piracy.

Poor economy, ignorance, low awareness and weak laws have encouraged piracy. Piracy restricts creativity; high volume videos released is not a contributive factor. Efforts put in place to tackle the menace have not been effective. Therefore, there is a need to put in place effective legal structures and monitoring to combat the menace.