Nigeria pop star 2Face Idibia calls for crack down on pirates

(CNN) -- Nigeria's music industry is flourishing. However, it faces a big threat -- the scourge of piracy.
But the tide is changing, say the country's top music stars, who are stepping up efforts to reform the industry and are putting pressure on the government to crackdown on pirates.
One of Nigeria's most celebrated artists is among those calling for action to stamp out the problem.
"Piracy is still a very massive issue because there is no control in terms of producing the CDs and no barcodes. You don't even know where it is coming from," said hip-hop and RnB star Innocent Idibia, popularly known as 2Face.

Idibia is no stranger to the international scene and his music has won him a string of awards both at home and abroad.
But while he has been recognized for his work he feels that back home there is a lack of respect for artists and that the police do not view piracy as a serious crime.
"A policeman might be standing here, someone might be selling pirated copies over there and he wouldn't even look at it as though someone is committing a crime and he might even buy one!" he said.
"They love the music, they want to listen to it, they dance to it, they buy the pirated copies, but the respect for the actual intellectual property is not there," he continued.
Only a decade ago, there were only one or two compact disc production plants. Today there are 28 in operation and the country has its own copyright commission, the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC).
According to the latest Strategic Action Against Piracy report released in 2011 from the NCC, piracy of CDs, VCDs, DVDs cost just over $3.5 million a year.
 
 
By Emily Wither, for CNN