“If you know how many people have died under the weight of piracy, if you know how people take loans and never recover because of piracy, you know that it is beyond the monetary terms."
The Nigerian Copyright Commission has said that Nigeria’s creative sector was under threat from piracy and content counterfeiters.
This was made known by the Director-General, John Asein, at the ongoing intellectual property symposium organised by the United States Embassy in collaboration with other federal and private institutions.
The two-day symposium had in attendance top executives drawn from the pharmaceutical, banking and creative industries.
Speaking with journalists during the event, Asein said that officials of the commission had been deployed to various schools to monitor and check that books sold to students were not pirated versions.
He said, “Our men are going to schools to ensure that pirates don’t make use of schools as outlets.
“It had become an easy outlet for them as nobody ever checks that. We are looking at how best to address pirated books being sold on the street.
“If you know how many people have died under the weight of piracy, if you know how people take loans and never recover because of piracy, you know that it is beyond the monetary terms.
“This kills investment, it kills the system, it kills the industry. So, it’s not just money, it’s the fact that the creative sector is under threat.
“We can use the law as it is today to still tackle piracy. The law is presently been revised we are likely going to have a better law that will enable us fight piracy.”