With the increasing criminal activities of software pirates  in the Nigerian IT  market remaining unabated,  the  Nigerian Copyright Commission, (NCC) has clamped down on  Plum Telecom, a computer reseller  in  the Computer Village,  in Lagos,  following a petition on behalf of Microsoft Nigeria.

The raid where multiple copies of high quality counterfeit software were seized , it was learnt,  took place  following a  recent tip_offs received by the NCC on the activities of the reseller.

During the raid,   it was gathered that  multiple counterfeit versions of some of Microsoft’s most popular products were found including  Microsoft Office Professional, Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Home Edition and Microsoft Server Standard Edition.

The  raid, according to Microsoft,  was particularly significant as the packaging of the counterfeit software seized was of a very high quality and may be  difficult to differentiate from genuine software even to most experienced computer user.

“In a large number of cases the counterfeit software we find is of a very low quality, cheap to make and easy to identify as fake,”   Mr Akeem Aponmade who spoke on  behalf of the Director-General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, Adebambo Adewopo said.

“In this case, however, we are dealing with a much more sophisticated kind of criminal who deliberately purchased high quality counterfeit software, which could dupe even the savviest of customers into spending money into purchasing a product they believed to be genuine.

“Microsoft is grateful to the NCC for their efforts to tackle the issue of piracy in Nigeria.
“This raid should serve as a wake-up call to businesses, resellers and customers on the need to remain vigilant against software piracy.”

“We will continue to work closely with our partners to ensure they can identify genuine software even from the most high quality pirated versions” , Uzo Okpaka, Channel Compliance Manager for Microsoft Anglophone West Africa.said.

Similarly, Mr. John Ogboru,  of the  Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria, (CAPDAN) while commending the raid action said ,  “Piracy is not a victimless crime. The activities of Plum Telecom put the businesses of legitimate resellers in jeopardy and impact the credibility of the Nigerian IT reselling community as a whole.”