The Nigerian Copyright Fee (NCC), in partnership with the Nigeria Web Registration Affiliation (NiRA), has efficiently shut down MovieBox.ng, an internet site broadly recognized for streaming pirated movies, music, and stay sports activities.
The NCC introduced that the takedown took impact on July 20, 2025, as a part of a broader effort to curb digital copyright infringement.
Confirming the event in a press release launched on Thursday in Abuja, the NCC’s Director-Normal, Dr. John Asein, mentioned the motion was a serious milestone within the company’s renewed combat in opposition to on-line piracy.
The transfer has reportedly been welcomed by rights holders throughout Nigeria’s movie, music, and broadcast industries.
Based on Dr. Asein, MovieBox.ng operated as half of a bigger, coordinated community that makes use of fallback and clone domains to evade detection and proceed distributing pirated content material.
“They use a number of mirror domains to entry and promote pirated content material, with area histories linked to recognized piracy operations,” he mentioned.
“The function of web stakeholders is essential in implementing copyright legal guidelines within the digital setting,” Asein famous, stressing that collaboration is essential to tackling the rising tide of on-line piracy.
Piracy of films by way of digital platforms has grow to be a serious problem for film producers globally, and Nigerian producers are affected by the pangs of this act.
A UNESCO report estimates that between 50% and 70% of income in Nigeria’s movie market is misplaced to piracy.
Past the lack of income, this observe additionally discourages native and international investments, as no person will wish to help an endeavour that won’t yield the anticipated end result.
Piracy additionally drastically reduces earnings from album and film gross sales, thereby shortchanging artistes, actors, producers, and just about everybody working behind the scenes on a manufacturing.
