Optimizing the Internet Despite Threat to IP: How Fashion Designers in Nigeria are Leveraging Digital Media Platforms for Market Entry and Growth

Abstract

It has been argued that the file-sharing dimension of the internet undermines the intellectual property rights of creative producers. By simply clicking a button, creative works such as music, films, books and fashion designs can be accessed, used and distributed free-of-charge via digital media platforms. This has led to what some writers termed copyfights between those that support the unrestricted sharing of creative works over the internet, and those who support the protection of the copyright of creative producers on the internet. This problem continues to dog creative producers in the knowledge economy. This article examines how this problem has affected fashion designers as creative producers, and how they have managed it. It argues that fashion designers have effectively leveraged and optimized the file-sharing dimension of the internet, and concludes that the internet is a strategic imperative for fashion designers and perhaps for every creative worker in the digital era.