Reads Riot Act To Alaba Market
Targets Online Infringements
ABOUT 722, 000, 000 units of pirated works and contrivances, estimated at N6.5b have been destroyed by the Nigerian Copyright commission (NCC).
The items were among those confiscated during anti-piracy raids carried out in the literary, broadcast and optical disc industries between 2007 and 2011.
The NCC, in the last 14 months, has confiscated more than 6,193,210 units of pirated copyright works, estimated at about N1.2b.
who disclosed this yesterday in Abuja, warned copyright infringers at the popular Alaba Market: “The commission will no longer condone use of Alaba Market as a haven for piracy. In the ensuing months, we will intensify surveillance activities to ensure that all illegal activities in the market are detected and apprehended. This project will be a continuous one until we are able to sanitise the market and rid it of all piracy activities, in terms of production or distribution.”
The commission is also reviewing the Copyright Act to include online infringement and ensure stiffer penalties for violators.
Ezekude said that the body has developed a strategic framework of action, geared towards achieving this objective and had stepped up activities in legislative and regulatory reforms; enforcement; awareness creation; institutional capacity building and strategic engagements with critical stakeholders and technical partners.
He revealed that the anti-piracy watchdog currently has 63 ongoing criminal and civil cases at various divisions of the Federal High Court, adding that between January 2011 and February 2012, NCC instituted 26 criminal cases, covering various categories of copyright infringement namely: books, CDs, software, and broadcast.
So far, 18 of these cases have resulted in convictions of the accused persons with various levels of sentences imposed, in accordance with the provisions of the law.
Ezekude said that in the last one year, the commission took steps to strengthen implementation of various regulatory interventions it made, in order to encourage sound business practices and effective rights management in the copyright industries.
According to him, NCC would intensify efforts in bringing to book all copyright infringers arrested, in order to underscore need for respect of rights of creators in Nigeria and demonstrate that the country is no longer a safe haven for poachers of intellectual property rights.
He explained that apart from the need to demonstrate, publicly, a zero tolerance policy towards piracy, NCC considers it important to dispose of such pirated materials in a manner that would ensure they do not return to the market.
“Several anti-piracy operations have already been carried out since the beginning of the year,” he said. “Notably, two raids have been carried out in the notorious Alaba Market in Lagos. The last of the raids in Alaba was carried out in the early hours of Tuesday, March13, 2012. The raid, which took place in two shopping plazas within the market, led to arrest of six persons as they carried out illegal duplication of CDs of various copyright works.
More than N30m worth of pirated CDs, VCDs, DVDs and CD duplicating machines; printers and printed CD jackets used in the illegal activities were confiscated.
Ezekude revealed that the commission is exploring all avenues of closer collaboration with stakeholders and would soon launch a Copyright Marshals’ Scheme, which will enable representatives of stakeholder organisations, appointed by the commission as Marshals to participate in enforcement activities of the watchdog.
He said that the role of Copyright Marshals would include mobilising relevant right owners in identifying pirated works; sourcing for, and providing the commission with intelligence; and assisting the commission in awareness creation.
“In the last one year, the commission has increased its collaboration with international development agencies and other non-governmental organisations, including the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO); the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA); United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO), the International Federation of Phonographic Industry and the World Customs Organisation (WCO).
“Similarly the commission’s active collaboration with national copyright stakeholders like Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA), Music Label Owners and Recording Industries Association of Nigeria (MORAN), Multichoice Nigeria, and Microsoft; has enhanced the scope and effectiveness of the commission’s antipiracy operations.”
SOURCE: Guardian Newspaper, 18 March 2012. http://ngrguardiannews.com/
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