Music Industry Groups Threaten Hunger Strike Over Piracy
Written by enigmax on July 26, 2009In apparent despair at the levels of music piracy in Nigeria, a collection of music industry groups are hoping to attract the attention of the country’s president by taking drastic measures. They hope that broadcasters will soon run a “no music day” and if that wasn’t dramatic enough, they are also calling for a “mass hunger strike”.
There is little doubt that Nigeria has its problems. Although rich in oil, which provides much of its revenues, the country has a history of political instability and corruption with many citizens living in poverty.
The country also has more than its fair share of copyright infringement problems. Even if you take her comments with the usual pinch of salt, last year US Department of Commerce Representative Karen Burress painted a fairly bleak picture of the situation. She claimed that Nigeria was the largest market in Africa for infringing goods, with around 80% of the available international music CDs in the country and around 40% of local music sold as pirate copies.
Now, after a conference at the Protea Hotel in Lagos last Wednesday, a group of Nigerian music groups and artists are saying “enough is enough,” and are planning some pretty drastic action to attract the attention of the country’s President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to their plight.
The Nigerian Music Industry Coalition – which includes the Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria (PMAN), Association of Recording Industries (NARI), Performing & Mechanical Rights Society Ltd/Gte (PMRS), Association of Music Business Professionals (AM.B-Pro) and the Gramophone Records & Cassette Dealers (AGRECD) to name just a few – say that Nigerian artists are “all dying in silence” and something needs to be done about it.
The coalition claims that after several weeks of talks preceded by a lack of meaningful help from the government, they have no choice but to take drastic action.
“We are, therefore, forced to request Mr. President to declare a state of emergency with respect to the fight against the scourge of piracy and muster the necessary resources to eradicate this monster,” they said.
So how does the coalition plan to attract the attention of the president?
“If we do not see any change soon, we have resolved to call on all well meaning practitioners throughout the country to begin a mass hunger strike to make it clear to the world that the situation is not acceptable. Also, as a sign of our seriousness, we will soon announce a ‘warning strike’ that will request all broadcast platforms across the country to observe a 24-hour “no music day” as a demonstration of solidarity with the plight of our industry,” they said in a statement.
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110 Responses
Nigeria? LOL!! Starve to death, please.
let them starve
Silly, silly people!
Haha
let them starve
How can they expect to be taken seriously when they don’t let their left hand know what their right ass is doing?
This is ridiculous. There are so many people starving and living in poverty in Nigeria and yet these people think they’re gonna attract sympathetic attention by not eating? EPIC FAIL
Hmm. Curious how many actual artists will participate.
Also interesting how good and cheap Internet there is, what is financial circumstances of pirates there is and in what terms legal music is distributed there as picture seems to be far from being complete from this post. Will need to digg more on it in other places probably.
Please die!
Survival of the fittest! RIAA, MPAA, IFPI, BREIN, Securom, Sony DADC(and therefore Sony), TAGES, Solidshield, Safedisc, STEAM(Therefore Valve) should do the same.
Is this a joke, no really is it? Halarious! I guess they forgot about the internet breaking nationality bounds, and bringing in all the pirated music anyone could ever want.
Why are artists so narcissistic that they think everything they do should be appreciated and over-proportioned to a rate of 500%?
Why do they think they deserve money for every ear that listens to their music?
It reminds me of an old tale, in which the greedy restaurant owner sued the poor homeless guy sitting near the restaurant, enjoying the nice, tasty smell of fresh food.
The judge, one with extreme wisdom and no corruption, simply treated the restaurant owner by letting him listen to the ring of a gold coin, as the price to smelling the food.
Too bad we don’t have many of those judges anymore!
Now, I’m not in favor of selling pirated content, especially if it grows to become widespread, but we know the copyright owners don’t care whether you sell it or not; they just want to suck every last penny there is to suck.
This has nothing to do with “TorrentFreak is a weblog dedicated to bringing the latest news about BitTorrent and everything that is closely related to this popular filesharing protocol.”
Actual piracy ( = selling counterfeit cd/dvd’s on the street) is a totally different story compared to BitTorrent and file sharing altogether!
Besides, if piracy can generate money, and it does, of course that in countries with a high rate of poverty, people will tap into that and make it a source of income.
So let those punks starve to death… for once in their lives… for asking for more money from people that barely have some for themselves.
Let them starve. FOOLS!
There are already thousands starving in Nigeria. What difference will a few more (that no one likes anyway) make? Not a lick of difference.
Good less spam. If they don’t kill them selves can we just nuke them?
this is more to do with commercial piracy rather than p2p
Don’t they have a hunger strike everyday, called famine?
nice joke
these comments, rofl god people just love eachother huh?
Carl Sagen for the mother fucking win.
seriously, like anyone is going to hunger themselves…
If the RIAA would ask all American citizens to hungerstrike to stop piracy, do you think that anyone would do that, cracy morons.
Besides, if the nigerians are going to hungerstrike a lot of them would probably die, because they are already hungry and poor cause of the shitty government..
let them starve
Ooo I know, to make people buy my music, i’ll spaz out and go on a hunger strike. Thats really going to make your music better and compell people to buy it isn’t it.
I hope they all starve
i dont care :P
Cool! This will save amno!
Can we see them die on TV live at diner time?
Just a new Nigerian scam letter.
File sharers are NOT pirates.
We (99.9%) do not SELL the stuff we download.
We have been branded “”Pirates”" by the “media protectionist’s”.
We do not fund terrorism.
We do not fund criminal activity.
Sharing is NOT a crime.
WE NEED TO DIS-ASSOCIATE THE BRANDING “”PIRATE”" FROM FILESHARING.
If we stop the media protectionist’s from branding us as pirates… WE WIN.
The pirate bay should have been closed or renamed a long time ago.
Naming a FILE SHARING site “pirate” does us all no favours.
good you can starve seeing as youve just hit an all time low. (waits for neostyles to come on reciting the dialoge from that arnie and jackie chan commercial.)
Strave ALL OF NIGERIA, let them all DIE, do something good FOR ONCE.
good you can starve seeing as you just hit an all time low. (waits for .notstyles. to come out and recite the dialog of the jackie and arnie commericial)
Dir Sr oR Madim
I are a rich merchyent of music from Nijeria who have made milions from seling musc in my country.
The prsident here is alliening with the muisc people to take i money.
i are wiling to gve $1000000 of my $10000000 to u if you will b willin to help me get i money out of the country by using yur account.
all i need are a small money fee for sending my money.
Plese get bck in tuch if are interested.
B quike they the music men will not be long.
-Jay
MAYBE JUST MAYBE THE SHIT HOLLYWOOD IS SELLING IS LIKE UM I DUNNO
TOO EXPENSIVE?
MAYBE ya think?
At least when they are dead they will finally be silent.
Die nowz pleez.
Etheopia has been on a hunger strike for 47 years… it doesn’t work.
hopefully they will starve to death. i’m sick of my craigslist ads being replied to by nigerian 419 scams.
It would be much smarter if they could just ask for some 10-15% royalty from those pirate sellers. Then they could actually earn money from it.
So, the Nigerian artists are under the impression that killing piracy will make Nigerians buy their music? Hold on while I roll around on the floor laughing.
@ 30 by J
Fukin’ LOL
Please, DO proceed with the hunger strike, but I would like to ask for all Nigerian authorities to make sure none of them cheat, make sure no food gets in for about 60 days (cockroaches die hard!).
I have a message for those who are planning to go on hunger strike:
This is to do with ACTUAL piracy, unlike p2p users, they are selling bogus CD’s and sounds like it is really a big problem.
FTA:
“around 80% of the available international music CDs in the country and around 40% of local music sold as pirate copies.”
Well, fuck the international music piracy, the RIAA and bastards can suck it, they deserve it. I doubt a Nigerian could afford their god damn prices anyway (which is likely why such high levels exist).
Definitely sucks for the Nigerian artists though, they are probably not rolling in all the dough people here are suggesting (just a guess)..
Compliments of the season
this email may come as a surprise to you due to the fact that we have not meet before. my name is chuckwuma odeleke, son of the famous music producer babatunde odeleke, who died of hunger strike protesting piracy in july 2009. Prior to his departure he deposited a trunk box containing the lump sum of (TWENTY FIVE MILLION US DOLLAR) $25.000.000 for safe keeping with a security company in united kingdom. I need your help securing the money because I
get on with it.
It`ll save us having to continuously send aid over there.
I really dont get what a hunger-strike is supposed to achieve?
It basically a really slow and inefficient way to (try) and commit suicide.
“They wonät listen to us!”
“Lets stop eating, that’ll show em!”
…its flawless!
I really dont get what a hunger-strike is supposed to achieve?
It basically a really slow and inefficient way to (try) and commit suicide.
“They won’t listen to us!”
“Lets stop eating, that’ll show em!”
…its flawless!
Oh, sry for the double post.
No one bothers to even mention what piracy does to the music industry, right? They’re just our slaves, right.
Well, I have to admit, they have dedication, even if it is misguided.
I wish they would all do that…
Hope that they take it a step to far and starve. That will stop the whining.
Please starve and die, it’ll be a fun
P2P is generally confused with real physical Piracy (which is much more harmful than casual downloading).
This article drives the point home. The music industry in Nigeria is suffering from real piracy.
As far as re-branding ourselves, how about Peerate and Peeracy(might sound more like call of nature rather than the call of P2P).
What do ye think my mateys.
Indeed the keyword there is “sold”
I’m all for sharing content, but people who profit from selling pirate copies of content should be hanged.
oh i lol’d. a hunger strike in nigeria? its a third world country, half its population probly doesnt eat daily anyway. if they werent serious it would be a pretty cruel joke.
I truly, truly hope that Nigeria realises that their situation is radically worsened by the existing international Copyright and Patent agreements. Technology breeds technology, and when you have none – then you wont get any either. They cant produce cheap drugs, participate in the information economy and so forth BECAUSE of Copyright.
Im quoting others (Steal this film II) when Yankee means Copyright infringer, and Nigeria needs Copyright like the USA – where they dont care much for it. Nigeria needs to do what China did, just dont give a shit – get out of the mess and build technology and an infrastructure and THEN start worrying about IP.
This “hungerstrike” is just silly!
I truly, truly hope that Nigeria realises that their situation is radically worsened by the existing international Copyright and Patent agreements. Technology breeds technology, and when you have none – then you wont get any either. They cant produce cheap drugs, participate in the information economy and so forth BECAUSE of Copyright.
Im quoting others (Steal this film II) when Yankee means Copyright infringer, and Nigeria needs Copyright like the USA – where they dont care much for it. Nigeria needs to do what China did, just dont give a shit – get out of the mess and build technology and an infrastructure and THEN start worrying about IP.
This “hungerstrike” is just silly!
When they all die, we will come to collect their oil
Won’t anyone think of the children?!
“Also, as a sign of our seriousness, we will soon announce a ‘warning strike’ that will request all broadcast platforms across the country to observe a 24-hour “no music day” as a demonstration of solidarity with the plight of our industry,” they said in a statement.”
um yeah, you can’t stop filesharing there if the person has a pc or internet device and what if the person broadcast on streaming sites? How the hell do you stop that? Ya can’t. Thats just it. The 24 hour broadcast ban is an epic fail before it started.
I can’t believe all you @ssholes are saying “Let them starve”. What is wrong with you? How can you make a statement like that.
The prices of Nigerian CDs are around $40-$50 USD. Most people can’t afford that, so they resort to piracy as their source. I bet some of these people make a living off selling pirated music in this poor country.
Most of you people are heartless bastards. Nigerian’s were just unlucky to be born in a poor country. No one chooses where they are born.
#40 has it the best. Fuck the international music pirate it all you want, but it sucks for the local music scene.
Shorter article:
Nigerian RIAA throws tantrum, nobody cares.
You know, the other MAFIAAs should try this to. I look forward to them starving themselves, have the problem solve itself.
Yeah this is a little weird…I’m not quite sure what I think about it yet. Wait until the day comes when Nigeria gets high-speed fiber lines I guess :P
and I thought art was something to be admired for it’s aesthetic quality… rather than “units” of “product” to be paid for.
Silly me… the corporations duplicate the artists and sell the copies to us… rather than us duplicating it ourselves.
Way too much to expect every artist to tour, to regularly perform, to release or use merchandise after events to profit from (you know… actual WORK rather than a good studio recording session to duplicate electronically to cream off of forever).
Ok, good laugh. Thanks for the story. Maybe the president will ignore them and help to cut down on the world’s population. I bet their tummies will speak before then though. LOL
Atleast the pricks have a choice whether or not to eat,most nigerians dont.so go ahead give the food to someone else and starve.Or maybe educate yourself to the real problem dumbasses.
go to nigeria you’ll get home in a coffin
NOT TRUE! Musicians in Nigeria are making millions. Definitely not struggling. How do I know? A famous Nigerian musician just emailed me the other day. Says he needs to transfer 10 million dollars into the US and needs my bank account info (he will give me some of the money for use of my account).
I’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.
Almost LOL’d @ #64… and I’m a humourless bastard!!… :)
You know what, more American artists should be doing this. Maybe they’ll actually garner some attention.
It’s not like the people in the music industry have become homeless because of piracy. There are still quite a lot of users who pay for music which means that the music industry is still making huge profits.
The way I see it, these people are too greedy and have gone on a hunger strike for their greed. This kind of behavior is comparable to children throwing tantrums.
So starve starve starve…
die die die…
If only MPAA and RIAA did the same ;)
Did it ever occur to the anti piracy groups that these people are probably selling bootlegs in order to eat?
. . . I bet they have a cookie hidden somewhere.
Sounds like blackmale to me…
declare a state of emergency because someone is selling copied dvds?
LOL plz have your brain checked out. or better yet, go do your hunger strike and starve to death.
and lol @ #64
It’s a good idea. I think they should try it in the rest of the world. Maybe even set up a cam that shows the slow death of execs at RIAA, BREIN, and the like. And a big party when they are all dead.
I have never listened to Nigerian music or seen a Nigerian film or used Nigerian software. Have you …?
So what are the 80% pirating.
My guess is its stuff from the USA big businesses.
Just another shameless Con Job by huge corporations after the last $ they can get. Now they want people to die for their bottom line … Its a bit sick really
“Please die!”
“Nigeria? LOL!! Starve to death, please.”
“let them die”
Comments like these make me lose a lot of respect to the people in this community… fucking pathetic losers
If you were living in a poverty stricken 3rd world country and were only getting paid for 20% of your work you would be pretty desperate also.
If its people that are voluntarily going into a hunger strike (as many in Africa are in massive hunger involuntarily)… Let them die in hunger…
please!!! let the dum asses starve. who is really pirating anything from Nigeria. epic,epic fail!!!
Let them starve.
1 – the record companies make money off the artists and give them nothing, people on the street who need to make money to survive aren’t allowed to do the same?
2 – We’ve been sending Nigeria food all along, haven’t we? This is the new nigerian scam, asking for food then hunger striking. :P
@7 SUCH A GOOD POINT
…Are you sure this isn’t related to ACTUAL piracy?
a hunger strike is a great idea. i hope the MPAA, RIAA and IFPI, all take note and also go on hunger strike
then when they are dead the world will be a better place
http://www.h33t.com who is starting a beer and kebab diet in memoriam of the old dead technologies ;-)
Now if we can only get the likes of Lars Ulrich and his buddies to join in on this hunger strike…
Seriously though, Nigeria would be way better off doing something about the (foreign) corruption that’s keeping the country in a perpetual chaos so they can rape it’s wealth of natural resources, which should benefit the population instead of the big (western) companies.
lol omg everybody take them seriously! OH NO@! NO MUSIC FOR A DAY WHAT EVER WILL WE DO..
seriously thats the best you morons could come up with? You look like a bunch of 15 year old girls trying to sell cookies..
pathetic.. nobody could possibly care less.. ever.
@28…GOSPEL
The easy was would be to stop producing music, not stopping eating you morons!
@76 “Sounds like blackmale to me…”
i lol’d ;P
UMMM food , awww just ate a nice meal , oh so good.
waves a cheese bread stick in air …
NOT FER YOU i see.
And ya i wish they would do that in north America too.
They’d quickly realize how little actual sympathy they get and they’d have to starve to death before anyone even said anything.
UMMM chocolate……
Anyone who knows something is properly for sale but takes a free copy for themselves is a pirate and part of the problem. Whether you resell or not is not the arbiter of “commercial”.
If the file you take at no payment to the rights holder has a commercial value and you thus “save yourself” that money, that’s a “commercial” infringement, the sum total value of your infringement is the commercial value of your infraction. That’s partt of why statutory damages can be so high. This remains true virtually everywhere on earth except Spain and we’ll se how long they can afford to be viewed as part of the problem in the greater world of global commerce.
But poor folks in Nigeria have few tools at hand to protest the financial ransacking of their goods through copyright infringement so they do whatever they can, while you laugh and tell them all to “die.” Pirates have never been accused of being classy, that’s for sure.
Of course, here in the states we have this little inconvenience called legal accountability. Tenenbaum’s opening arguments start in just about an hour. He probably just WISHES he could die. lol
I say, give the food they normally eat to some of those staving folks on the streets. I mean, no sense the food going to waste.
“But poor folks in Nigeria have few tools at hand to protest the financial ransacking of their goods through grossly overpriced CDs so they do whatever they can….”
Who are these “well meaning practitioners?” Would these be NOT yourselves?!
buncha moneymongers
Hmmm…. I imagine most people in Nigeria have more serious things to worry about than whether some artist reckons he gets paid enough.
But it’s interesting to hear that this debate is taking place in Nigeria too, a third world country.
What of India, Pakistan etc?
Music is meant to be an uplifting aspect of all societies. In the world we live in, it may be one of the few things keeping people sane. a hunger strike over piracy? I think these record companies need to remember what really made them get into the music industry in the first place. music is about making people happy, not making people money. the world needs to grow up.
@J
I wouldn’t be so quick to assume those comments are by your average reader. Look at the first 5 comments for example. Anything strike you as odd about them? Tone setting? Take a look sometime at how easy it can be to manipulate the responses of others on an issue by doing such, you may be surprised. . .
I would be very surprised if true artists did stuff like that to get people to enjoy their art.
That said, the post header does say ‘industry’, so that would stand to reason that those who believe more in money might.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Sara
http://pianotutorial.net
If you expect your music to never be pirated, you will starve. I release my own music through the same channels I get it from, and I’m a jolly fat man!
alas… what mindnumbing irony. Next, they’ll threaten a tan-off.
I´m wondering how they came up with this idea:
¨”Uh oh, people are getting music from pirates instead of trough legal sources”
“Oh, I have an idea!”
“What?”
“Let´s shut down all the legal sources! That´ll show them!”
You’re all a bunch of idiots.
This has nothing to do with American artists – only Nigerian artists.
President change, regieme change, and now they have the audacity to say to the president ‘yeah, we know thousands are living in poverty, yeah we know it’s possibly the worst place in the world to live – and we know you’re trying to fix it… but what about us eh? The musicians? When do we get to make *our* millions like the American artists do?’
Well the answer is never you shower of ****s.
You picked the wrong country to try and get rich from an art form in.
The Pirates have signed on an agreement with the ninjas.
File sharing continues, Spread the word.
I thought they were already on a massive hunger strike… for the purpose of getting food…
so in a third world country with lots of people truly living in poverty, the rich people are going to show they deserve more money by going hungry? PURE GENIUS!
Aren’t most Nigerians starving already? Who cares if recording industry and pro-copyright officials choose to starve to death. Let’s hope they film it and laugh at them. ;)
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