"Africans must lose any naïveté about how IP rights are managed and exploited in developed economies. Historically, African content creators have had a lack of awareness about the international market value of their IP creations as well as the complexities of copyright and contract law that govern their trade."
In the wake of the copyright / Intellectual Property controversy over the 2010 FIFA World Cup anthem, Scribbles from the Den republishes a very educaitonal article from 2003 in which Dayo Ogunyemi, who once ran an entertainment law practice in New York, argues that there is a dire need to raise awareness within Africa about the value of Intellectual Property (IP), and the remedies that are available when these rights have been violated. Read on...













LAGOS (Reuters) - From cocktails with hip-hop stars to sushi with smooth-suited bankers, it's no wonder Nigerians moving back after decades in New York or London feel right at home among the high-rolling elite of Lagos.
A man is hanging naked from the ceiling by a meat hook. His feet are bound, but his mouth is open – screaming a confession. He is surrounded by half a dozen soldiers in ragged uniforms whose fists are caked in his blood. Unsatisfied, they taunt him in a language he doesn't understand, as a rifle butt is thrust into his groin. His name is Nick du Toit. He is a South African mercenary, and one of my best friends.
It’s hard to believe that the night before last the news was buzzing insanely with stories that Mugabe was on the brink of stepping down and going.
Festus Gontabanye Mogae, the president of Botswana, will retire from office on March 31, 2008. In doing so, Mogae will not be stepping down voluntarily. He will not be doing so as a favour to his people. He will not be yielding to public pressure. It will not be because he has found a suitable successor or because he has completed all the important work that he started. It certainly will have nothing to do with his age. He is only 68. President Mogae will step down from the presidency because of a very simple reason, one which he stated towards the end of his State
I met Steve Biko once. His miserable death on the floor of a South African prison cell, 30 years ago today, still lay a few years in the future. So did his friendship with the white newspaper editor, Donald Woods, resulting in the book and film, Cry Freedom!, which made him an icon. But if the name of Biko became a thorn in the side of the white regime, today's commemorations will be equally uncomfortable for South Africa's black majority government.



Recent Comments