NPA Partners NCC to Fight Piracy

Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA) and the Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC) have declared zero tolerance for pirates, with the resolve to embark on massive raids of all the pirates’ outlets in the country.

They described the current rate of piracy in the country as not only a potent danger to the nation’s economy, but a great risk to the education sector.

Mr. John Asein , director general , Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC), who addressed a press conference at the Nigerian Publishers Association ( NPA ) office, Jericho , Ibadan, at the weekend  after an interactive session with a cream of publishers in the country , listed airports , seaports and hotels as major outlets to be raided in an attempt to arrest pirates .

The DG, who stated that the federal government has maintained its resolve to stamp out piracy, restated government’s commitment to growing domestic business and ensuring that the private sector is given the attention they deserved. He said, “we have come to see that there is no way the private sector can grow as we expect it, if piracy and other copyright abuses are allowed to thrive.

In the past from what we know , piracy has had a free reign for too long and when we came to celebrate our 30th anniversary last year , one of the things we said is that we are going to change that narrative, and we are going to engage the stakeholders and begin to understand what the problems are.

Also, Taye Solarin Sogbesan, NPA Vice President, said the association and NCC have been working underground to protect the local industries against pirates.

“And we are going to have a proper diagnosis of the situation and what solutions we will put to bear. So, this interactive session we had today is a follow up to the one we had in Lagos, and as well with the publishing industry.

And I must commend the publishing industry for showing the readiness, not just the willingness to address the problems of the industry. So, for us, it is to begin to look at piracy in a more holistic fashion, using our recent anti-piracy action in Ariaria market, Aba model, and that operation seemed to have revealed a lot about the gaps in distribution chains and about the weakness in the whole publishing architecture that makes it for pirates to corner a sector and thrive so well. And we think we should begin to address that and find ways of blocking those points where pirates, as it were, siphon away from the main distribution channels and the legitimate publishing business.”

Recalling last year’s raid of Ariaria market, Aba, where over three container loads of pirated books worth over N100million were confiscated, the NCC boss revealed that the commission and the NPA have begun to adopt strategies to ensure zero tolerance for piracy in the country. He said, “As you know very well , in the last few months we have begun to adopt defence strategies.

One is this interaction, and then, we have town hall meetings, talked to different stakeholders, visited schools, and do spot inspections. And beyond that, we are now going to be engaging the Federal Airport Authorities (FAA), as well as other regulatory bodies.

“As you know very well, last year there was a resolution on the floor of the House of Representatives, calling on the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), the police, and other agencies to do something about the rate of piracy in Nigeria. And for us, we have begun with a step towards that direction to call on other agencies to collaborate with and find ways of addressing this at different points, so we are addressing the outlets, and the airports. We are still finding people to talk to from the hotels , and we do visit those places now and anywhere we see pirated materials, we will call the proprietor or call the person in that place to order.”