By Samuel Oyadongha, Yenagoa
The Society of Non Fiction Authors of Nigeria (SONFAN) Niger Delta University , Bayelsa State chapter Today staged a peaceful rally at Amassoma tagged “No Photocopying Day” in protest over what it described as the illegal photocopying of materials most especially among students in the nation’s tertiary institutions with about N12.bn lost annually.

Armed with placards some of which reads, “Stop Exploitation of Creative Intellectual Works” Stop Reprographic Reproduction,” “Photocopying is Harmful to Authors and Creators,” Obtain Licence for Photocopying” and Protect Copyright Protected Materials,” among others, members of the group numbering about forty said over 7.58billion pages of books, journals, newspapers and other works were being photocopied every academic session.

Loses incurred by writers of academic and non fiction works through the unremunerated photocopying amounts to a staggering N12.bn annually, SONFAN lamented.

Dr. Wenikado Ganagana and Dr. Golikuma Mangiri, Chairman and Secretary respectively of NDU chapter of SONFAN in a statement said the purpose of rally was to bring to the fore of public discourse the exploitation of writers of academic and non fiction works through the unremunerated photocopying of their works.

The university dons lamented that in Nigeria such works have been subjected to extensive reprographic reproduction such as in photocopying without permission from the right owner.

“This has been done to the extent that photocopying has become an integral part of Nigeria’s educational system. No one challenges the exploitation because everyone feels it has become the norm. But that is not true and should not be the case,” it noted.

In a survey conducted on photocopying in the country’s tertiary institutions by Reproduction Rights Society of Nigeria (REPRONIG) according to the group, it was discovered that an average student makes an average of 1,715 photocopies of A4 pages in a session and that out of this, 1,516 pages were materials protected by copyright which should never have been photocopied without permission from the right’s owners.

“When considered against the enrolment of five million in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, these amount to over 7.58billion pages of books, journals, newspapers and other works photocopied every academic session. The losses incurred by writers of academic and non fiction works through unremunerated photocopying amount to a staggering N12.bn every year,” the group said.

Continuing they said, “all over the world, the establishment and activities of collecting societies have provided a safety valve for both the owners and users of copyrighted works; one in the attempt to be remunerated in a just and fair reward system for the exploitation of his intellectual property, and the other, in the need to have access to knowledge based materials for education and other purposes.

“In Nigeria, however, these rewards have been long in coming because the legal framework for ensuring this reward system is not adequate to compel users of copyrighted materials to pay for the intrinsic value they obtain from materials photocopied.”