Commission mulls amending Act to tackle technological forms of piracy – Official

ONITSHA – The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) said on Monday it had planned to amend its enabling Act to tackle technological forms of piracy.

The Zonal Manager of the commission, Mr Emeka Ogbonna, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Onitsha that a bill for act to amend the commission’s mandate had been sent to the National Assembly.

Ogbonna explained that the bill would enable the commission to arrest those patronising the pirates and the middlemen.·

“ I can tell you that we have been in touch with the stakeholders on the best way to approach that type of infringement.

“Technology continues to improve and we continue to have challenges and it is only when you see it that you start working on how best to cut-off the negative aspects of such developments.

“As I speak to you, the Nigerian Copyright Act is being amended and the essence of the amendment is to bring it to a particular level that it can address some of these technological challenges.[eap_ad_2]

“Strictly speaking about the memory cards, MP-3, MP-4, you see, memory card per say, has no problem; MP-3, MP-4 per say is not the problem, the problem is the content.

“Because the same device we are talking about can as well be used for something legitimate.

“So, it is at the point when it is being used to record things that it shouldn’t for commercial purposes, that infringement is committed.’’

Ogbonna said that the commission had identified some of the spots where the illegal activities were going on, warning them on the dangers of their illegal activities.

He said that the commission had begun to educate the perpetrators by proffering legitimate alternative means of using the technological devices.

NAN learnt that pirates charge their clients N10 for downloading music and N20 per video and games. (NAN)[eap_ad_3]