John Asien
Director-General, Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), John Asien, and Executive Secretary, Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA), Emmanuel Abimbola, have appealed to the media and security agencies to collaborate with the commission in the fight against piracy.
The duo, in a meeting with members of the Oyo State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), said collaboration with the media and security agencies has become imperative to check piracy, considering the effect the crime on Nigerians intellectual properties, the media practitioners inclusive.
Piracy, to them, is being taken beyond human imagination, such that foreigners now collaborate with some criminally-minded Nigerians to pirate academic works and other intellectual properties belonging to Nigeria and Nigerians, which could have improved the economy of the country and its people.
Asien lamented that for every case of piracy, there is always a huge repercussion on the author and publisher.
He recounted how a container-load of over 300,000 cartoons of pirated books worth over N300 million was accosted recently at one of the ports in Nigeria.
You could imagine the economic damage such did to the publishers of those books if it was not accosted and seized? I express appreciation to the security agents and the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) for the great assistance they rendered.
According to the DG, cooperation with the media is deemed necessary to sensitise Nigerians about the dire economic effect of piracy on the people and the nation at large.
He said the commission had made arrests and secured convictions We can still do better if all hands are on deck to fight piracy. I also commend the judicial system for taking a tough stand against piracy. The various security agents also need to take a tougher position against the crime.
In his remarks, Abimbola flayed the South West states for placing arbitrary administrative charges on book reviews, periodically, under the guise of making revenue.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Why are you flagging this comment?
I disagree with this user
Targeted harassment - posted harassing comments or discussions targeting me, or encouraged others to do so
Spam - posted spam comments or discussions
Inappropriate profile - profile contains inappropriate images or text
Threatening content - posted directly threatening content
Private information - posted someone else''s personally identifiable information
Before flagging, please keep in mind that Disqus does not moderate communities. Your username will be shown to the moderator, so you should only flag this comment for one of the reasons listed above.
We will review and take appropriate action.
Get the latest news delivered straight to your inbox every day of the week. Stay informed with the Guardians leading coverage of Nigerian and world news, business, technology and sports.
Follow Us