By Oluchi Chibuzor
In its bid to regularize the creative industry, experts at the Legal Business Network, says Legal Education is paramount to grow and harness the potential of the emerging entrepreneurs in the entertainment industry who are not leveraging on copyright notification and trademark of their intellectual property to avoid tussles from chains of ownerships.
Also government has been urged to empower regulatory agencies to be stringent on digital contents as more of the works on social media platforms are not child friendly and with so many financial irregularities perpetuated by online users, without any body holding them accountable.
Speaking at a legal business meet-up 3.0 event, over the Weekend, with a Theme: “Media and Entertainment Business: Legal Issues”, the founder, LBN, Ifeoma Ben, said that small and medium enterprises need to gain clarity about legal aspects of their business and build legally protected business, advising that every budding talents in creative industry needs an established structure to succeed in the industry.
Ifeoma, said; “I see businesses crash and it pains my heart that entrepreneurs are trying and toiling everyday to do businesses, but because they do not know about legal issues their businesses do not grow as a result of legal issues or the other. So this session is to create a knowledge sharing solution to educate them about all these problems they encounter in contractual dealings especially in the entertainment industry”.
“People should seek legal education and consult an expert who understands the ethics of contractual relationship between players, issues in the entertainment industry and digital platforms”. She said.
In a similar vein, on the rising uncensored contents on our media spaces and the effects on our society, experts believe that government agencies should do more by applying necessary laws in the country to erring media outfits and develop proper synergy to control various crimes and contents on social media as the world is becoming a digitized, which exposes children to unhealthy things.
The National Second Assistant General Secretary, Nigeria Bar Association, Chinyere Obasi, noted ‘’that censor regulatory agencies need to come in play and enforce the laws with stringent measures as these days children are corrupt from what they see and hear from different media platforms. Entertainers should understand the dynamics of their business and see the art as a business that required documentation of paper works stating terms and conditions clearly without oral agreement as seen among the elite stars in the country”. She said.
On her part, the Vice-chairman, NBA, Lagos branch, Bolatumi Amimashaun, advised content creators to see legal matters as insurance to secure their future whenever they are thinking big. She said: they should consult a lawyer at every step they take in their career, who will help redeem their consequence whenever they feel exploited.
