Speaking to newsmen on the sideline at the commission’s Governing Board meeting, Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) Director General, Mr. John Asein, said that effect of piracy is not only in monetary terms but also the colossal damage it does to practitioners.
Asein noted that the over $3b is just an estimation as its actual value is almost immeasurable.
He added: “Unfortunately, like most aspects of our national life, we don’t have exact figures, but you can only imagine when you have the size of Nigerian creative industry, you know that more than half of what should have come in goes into either piracy or other forms of abuse.
“The losses are better imagined. This again is the reason why we must get back to the story the commission had embarked upon a few years ago which is to actually measure the contribution of the creative sector to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that will help us in planning. It will help government to better appreciate the exact value of the creative sector .
“You will realize that every state has something to contribute in the creative sphere and they are not able to realize the full potential of their output that gives you an idea of the huge losses going on.
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“I don’t want to try throwing figures around, if they are not scientifically derived. So, it is better imagined when you look at the size of Nigerian creative industry .
“We have to be more creative in all we do. What we have begun to do now is to partner stakeholders . There is a lot we can do if we work together. “
He said the commission would be deploying technology to fight piracy as “a lot of the piracy is going online”.
“So the commission must be able to go online and find ways of trapping them. If we need to be one step ahead, we must be. We have to understand technology, business and then apply the law. “
On curbing piracy in the book industry, Asein said the commission is discussing with school proprietors and would be deploring technology in addressing copyright.
He said: “We think that we can use some verification methods to make it easy for consumers to know between pirated and genuine works. That can be done using technology. We have looked at different solutions outside Nigeria that work and we are talking with the Nigerian Proprietors Association (NPA). at this point to have in place.
“Our plan is to have in place a crack team that will be able to monitor what goes on online.”
