Movie buff advocates life imprisonment for movie pirates

A movie buff, Mr Olanrewaju Scott, on Tuesday advocated for life imprisonment, heavy financial penalty, or assets seizure as sanctions against movie piracy in the country.

Scott, who is the Producer of Lagos Jump, an Entertainment Event, made the appeal while speaking with Newsmen in Lagos.

He said such sanctions would go a long way in curbing the activities of movie pirates in the country.

“Life imprisonment is not too grievous as sanction for pirating a movie, considering the effect of the illegal act on the health and psychological life of the movie producers whose intellectual works are pirated,” he said.

According to him, government could also enforce heavy financial penalty or asset seizure as the case may be.

“I believe the solution to bringing the activities of movie pirates to a halt is through heavy financial penalty, asset seizure and life imprisonment in a very serious case that causes great financial loss to the intellectual content owner.

” The illegal activities can be curbed if the deterrent laws are enforced very seriously by the law enforcement agencies,” the movie expert said.

He added that this was the way the federal or state governments could support the entertainment industry by protecting the intellectual property of Nigerian movie producers.

Scott said that if a movie pirate knows the implications of the act, he would be discouraged from engaging in the illegal act.