You know? (, and take this from a wise man    ), what I am about to say might sound like a joke, but I am dead serious about it!  It absolutely sickens  me when I hear people trying to play "protector" for Nollywood with regards to piracy issues. In spite of the so-called piracy, the industry has continued to grow, and grow, and grow! By my estimates it will be the largest move industry (in terms of numbers) in the not-so-distant future. So why all the "hoopla"
Piracy is a big problem, I agree, but it has been around for ages. It is certainly not going away now y'all can believe that. Here is my take on the "real" issue Nollywood is having:

1- They have failed to address the issue of piracy at home:
At the risk of sounding cynical, I'd like to say that is a shame that Nigerian movie makers are coming all the way to the US to "fight piracy", yet when they cannot even face the problem in their home country. No other country's movie industry will ever stoop this low, but in this case it's the "soon to be largest." In the 1980s and early 1990s when we were crazy about "video clubs" in Nigeria, all those hit moves like RAMBO and COMMANDO (some Indian and Chinese movies as well) were all over the place! Many were sold in the open markets and rented out in "video clubs" illegally. We never saw the American, Chinese, or Indian movie producers come to Nigeria to ask us to waste taxpayer money fighting to protect "their" product.  They dealt with the problem in their home country, and as a  result,  each of these industries today realize most of their profits at home and in the actual markets for which the products were intended. Failing to deal with the problem at home, and instead trying to use another country's legal system that is unfortunately open to just about any kind of litigation (including spilling hot coffee on yourself from McDonalds), only further underscores some of our failures as a country.

2- Some of the so-called copyrighted movies already themselves violate international copyright agreements:
There was a movie titled "Sharon Stone." Another named "Beyonce and Rihana." Countless other movies Nollywood have also used names of songs, and even actual songs produced by American music producers with impunity and with out remorse. I have heard songs by Celine Dion, Roberta Flack, and Back Street Boyz in Nollywood movies, and I am sure they didn't get any permission from these artists. Yet, they in the same very token have the nerve to cry foul about copyright issues. How laughable! If their argument is going to ever hold water, they will need to clean up their own act first. In the US, if your work so much as resembles that of another person without proper consultations, you will face serious copyright issues.

3- Nollywood movies would never have become as popular as they are if it weren't for they would call "piracy" (particularly online streaming):
Most of the folks who watch videos for free online (in the US), only watch it for that very reason, "free." These are not folks who would otherwise have purchased the movies for 10-15 dollars or so, Trust me! FOLKS WILL SIMPLY NOT BUY IF IT IS NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE!!! And those who still do purchase, will purchase,  online streaming or no online streaming! Because nobody would prefer to watch a whole movie in bits and pieces on a laptop screen if they have reasonable access to the DVD disk and can comfortably sit in their living room and watch it on their big-screen plasma. Some of the people that calculate the estimate of the "losses" arrive at their conclusions based on analysis of online traffic related to Nollywood movies, and extrapolating from or translating those numbers directly to DVD sales. That is really delusional indeed!!  Like I said earlier, there is no relationship between online activity (streaming and viewing) and actual DVD sales. Again, I speak for the US audience in particular.

A little advise for Nollywood producers. The way people watch movies (and listen to music) in 2011 has changed. It's all digital now! We've done the magnetic (VHS and tape media) in the 1980s, the optical (CDs and DVDs) in the 1990s, and in this era, nearly everything is digital! Napster changed the way we listen to music forever. Netflix has also changed the delivery of digital video to consumers as well. They (Nollywood and its producers) either adjust with the times and stop whinning, or get left behind.

There are many more reasons why the producers should focus on their work and approach the problem more intelligently, like encrypting the data on their DVDs, and opening their own web based distribution channels. They just need to think.