General News
In line with its anti-piracy campaign, the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) on Tuesday carried out a raid on sellers of pirated literature in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that enforcement officers of the commission, accompanied by men of the Nigeria Police Force, carried out the operations along major roads and outlets in the Territory.
Large copies of pirated foreign and local literature, including the Legendary ‘Things Fall Apart’ by Chinua Achebe, were among items seized from the vendors, while two suspects were arrested.
Other pirated bestselling books seized during the operation included copies of Ola Rotimi’s masterpiece ‘The God’s are not to blame’, ‘The Drummer Boy’ by Cyprian Ekwensi, as well as pirated works of some contemporary authors.
NAN reports that the NCC is a Federal Government agency responsible for all copyright matters in Nigeria including the administration, regulation, enforcement and prosecution under the Copyright Act.
Mr Obi Ezeilo, NCC’s Director of Enforcement, said the raid was part of the nationwide intensified enforcement operations against pirated works launched by the orgnanisation to protect the nation’s creative industry.
The Director, who was represented by Mr Chukwuemeka Ngene, Assistant Chief Copyright Officer, noted that the operation was made possible because of effective intelligence gathering mechanism of the commission.
“The commission under its current Director-General has scaled up its enforcement activities to ensure that piracy becomes unattractive for those that have seen it as a means of making quick money.
“As part of the NCC’s zero-tolerance stance against piracy in all its forms, we are working closely with the Nigeria Police.
“The commission is poised to ensure total sanity of the creative industry to ensure that right owners enjoy the fruits of their hard labour,” he said.
According to him, those arrested would be made to face the wrath of the law in line with the enabling Acts of the board.
He, however, urged vendors of books, films and music materials to ensure that they deal directly with the original producers and right owners.(NAN)
-Jul, 21. 2020 @ 16:54 GMT |
Tags: NCC clamps down on vendors of pirated books in FCT
