A total of One Million, Two Hundred and Eighty Nine Thousand, Three Hundred and Forty-Four units of suspected Pirated literary, musical, software and broadcast gadgets valued at N1.2b belonging to different copyrights holders has been confiscated by the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) within the First and Second quarters (January to June) of 2017.
The seizures, carried out after Eighty (80) surveillances and Twenty-Six (26) antipiracy operations saw the arrest of Forty-Eight(48)suspected pirates from across the country.
In the same vein, three (3) shipping Containers stacked with suspected pirated books, CDs, VCDs and DVDs valued at Two Hundred and Seventy-Five Million Naira (N275, 000, 000) were seized during a Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and NCC joint inspection exercise in January 2017.
Meanwhile the Commission within the period under review, secured Two (2) Convictions against film and book pirates at the Federal High Court, Lagos;Instituted five (5) fresh cases against copyright infringers in different Federal High Court Jurisdiction across the Country; while also recording different level of progress in the prosecution of NCC suits across the country.
Mr. Afam Ezekude, Director-General of the Commission, disclosed this in his office in Abuja stressing that the impounded items represent income that would have been lost by legitimate rights owners and taxable income revenue that would have been lost by the Federal government.
