The Nigerian Copyright Commission has nabbed three bookshop owners in Rivers State for alleged book piracy.<\/p>\n
Abdul Babatunde, Director of the NCC’s Port Harcourt Directorate, made the announcement on Tuesday, immediately after an anti-piracy operation in the city.<\/p>\n
Babatunde revealed that the commission seized suspected pirated books worth N3 million during the raid.<\/p>\n
He stated that the suspects were currently under investigation and would be prosecuted once the facts surrounding their involvement in the conduct were revealed.<\/p>\n
The NCC official stated that it was part of the commission’s mandate to defend and promote the rights of authors and other stakeholders in the copyright ecosystem.<\/p>\n
According to him, the commission also ensures that authors and artists receive proper compensation for their efforts.<\/p>\n
“The commission is committed to seeing that the activities of pirates in Rivers and Bayelsa are reduced to the barest minimum,” he told journalists.<\/p>\n
Babatunde stated that the NCC Director-General, Dr. John Asien, had zero tolerance for piracy and infringement of copyright laws.<\/p>\n
He admonished booksellers, printers, and importers against stealing others’ intellectual property.<\/p>\n
The director also warned the public not to support pirates, stating that “doing so is a criminal offence.”<\/p>\n
“Patronizing pirates violates Section 44 of the Copyright Act, 2022. Patronizing piracy destroys creativity and the economy.<\/p>\n
“Let us buy our books from publishers and authorized dealers, and not from middlemen, printers and roadside dealers,” according to him.<\/p>\n
Babatunde asked members of the public to provide the commission with genuine information that will enable it to battle piracy in the state.<\/p>\n
One of the suspects, Mrs Chinyere Ezediora, told reporters that she had recently joined the company and was unaware of the anti-piracy statute.<\/p>\n
“I learned about book piracy for the first time when the commission arrived for arrest at our shop.<\/p>\n
“I encourage the commission to raise public awareness about the issue. “The public should be more informed about the law,” she stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Nigerian Copyright Commission has nabbed three bookshop owners in Rivers State for alleged book piracy. Abdul Babatunde, Director of the NCC’s Port Harcourt Directorate, made the announcement on Tuesday, immediately after an anti-piracy operation in the city. Babatunde revealed that the commission seized suspected pirated books worth N3 million during the raid. He stated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":48108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-education"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48107"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48127,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48107\/revisions\/48127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}