How NCC celebrated World IT Day

He addressed a press conference in his Abuja office, on a day that Nigeria joined other countries of the world to celebrate the 2015 World Book and Copyright Day with the theme “Read the World”.In his opinion, “Nigerians have taken up the reading culture in the last 10 years. But that is not to say […]

He addressed a press conference in his Abuja office, on a day that Nigeria joined other countries of the world to celebrate the 2015 World Book and Copyright Day with the theme “Read the World”.
In his opinion, “Nigerians have taken up the reading culture in the last 10 years. But that is not to say that we are there.”
Three days later, on Sunday, April 26, the NCC also celebrated the World Intellectual Property Day, an annual ritual instituted by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) this year’s theme is ‘Get up, Stand up for Music’.
There was a combined celebration of these events as the DG addressed newsmen in his office, since the World IP Day fell on a weekend. The day was also marked by pasting posters around the town to create awareness.
The NCC boss seized the opportunity to give the scorecard of the commission under his watch in the past four year, especially in terms of the commission’s zero tolerance for copyright piracy.
He mentioned that the journey so far has not been easy. Adding that in the course of carrying out anti-piracy campaigns and raids, some of his officers and men sustained serious injuries.
NCC was established in August 1989 as the Nigerian Copyright Council by the Copyright Decree No. 47 of 1988 now codified as Copyright Act (CAP. C28 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004).  
Today, Nigeria continues to enjoy a favourable perception in the global fight against copyright piracy.
Nigeria has since the last four years consistently been removed from the United States 301 list of countries that are considered not seriously addressing copyright piracy and other intellectual property crimes.
A source close to the NCC boss said that the commission has received written commendations as a result of its enhanced enforcement activities from different national and transnational copyright stakeholder associations, including the National Association of Recording Industries, Bible Society of Nigeria, McMillian Publishers, Nigerian Publishers Association, Microsoft Nigeria as well as Multichoice.
Investigation reveals that the commission, from 2011 to 2014, in pursuit of its policy of zero tolerance to piracy, has carried out extensive enforcement operations all over the country.
The NCC’s scorecard for the period under review shows that the commission carried out public burning of 722,000,000 units of pirated copyright works comprising musical, literary, film works and other contrivances with an estimated value of N6.5 billion. A total of 235 anti-piracy surveillance operations carried out in piracy endemic locations across the country; 203 strategic anti-piracy operations carried out against book, software, broadcast and film and music piracy all across the country and 443 suspected pirates apprehended during the raids.
The enforcement actions, according to a report made available to Daily Trust led to the removal in circulation of 6,083,384 assorted pirated copyright works with an estimated market value of N6.4 billion.
The report showed that the commission has entered into strategic cooperation with the EFCC and inter-agency collaboration with the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS). It also showed that 40 feet by 20 feet containers numbering 20 which infringed on DVDs, VCDs and books of foreign and local titles were seized at different sea ports across the country.
In the area of convictions, it stated that the commission secured 53 criminal convictions against copyright offenders at various federal high courts across the country with sentences ranging from considerable amounts of fines notably N250,000 the highest ever imposed to maximum terms of imprisonment (mandatory two years imprisonment without the option of fine).
The significant milestones of the commission in criminal convictions were two cases that attracted mandatory two years’ imprisonment without the option of fine of a broadcast pirate and a disc jockey (DJ) that specialised in downloading music from the internet for commercial purposes.
It was gathered that before 2011, the commission did not secure up to 10 convictions throughout its setting up from 1989 – 2010.
Till date, the commission has about 172 pending criminal copyright and civil cases pending at various divisions of the Federal High Court.
A staff of the commission who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity disclosed that the agency has boosted its human capacity with the training and retraining of over 1,000 workers across the senior and junior cadres.
The source added that the Nigerian Copyright Institute, the training arm of the commission, was upgraded to cater for national and sub-regional training needs on copyright and related areas.
The report, listed the core challenges confronting the commission to include, increasing overhead cost against drastic reduction of budgetary allocations; lack of office accommodation, communication facilities, insufficient operational vehicles and the rising cost of prosecution.
“As part of the moves to fulfill Nigeria’s international obligation in the areas of copyright to ensure that the nation’s teeming creative talents fully benefit from the global copyright system, the commission has championed a process for Nigeria to ratify the WIPO Copyright treaty, WIPO performances and phonogram treaty; Beijing treaty on audio-visual performances and the Marrakesh treaty,” the report stated.