The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) has unveiled a new corporate logo in effort to better position itself to achieve its mandate. This comes even as the Commission, on Tuesday, destroyed pirated books valued at N141.5 million. The materials were seized from booksellers and suppliers during various enforcement operations.

Speaking on the symbolism of the new logo at an event organised in Abuja, the Director of Public Affairs of the Commission, Ijeoma Egbunike, said the new logo featured a circular green-and-red badge with 36 radiating red spikes representing the 36 states of the federation.

“Together they form a hexagonal police star, symbolising the enforcement and police powers of the Commission,” she said, adding that the six tallest spikes represent the six major categories of copyright works – literary, musical, artistic, audiovisual works, sound recordings and broadcasts, as well as the six geopolitical zones, with the abundance of creativity across the country.

She explained that the three flowing green-white-green blocks with the ‘NCC’ initials embedded depict book spines, the flow of ideas and the dynamic character of the subject of copyright.

The inner green circle stands for creativity and reinforces the Commission’s primary mandate of protecting creativity (also shown in the tagline) while the outer blue circle represents the all-round wealth that is generated by creative activities.

She urged journalists and media professionals to note the change and stop using any previous logo. Director General of NCC, Dr John Asein said the destroyed pirated books were seized over the past three years from bookshops and markets in Abeokuta, Sango-Otta in Ogun and Ibadan.

A statement by NCC said the Oyo State Coordinator, Oluropo Oke, supervised the destruction of the pirated books in Ibadan on behalf of the DG.
“We valued the books before destroying them and found their total value to be N141,550,000. During the operations, we discovered that some booksellers could not prove the source of their purchases.

“There are several features that differentiate original books from pirated copies, including the binding, colour, grammage and point of purchase, the statement said.

The DG warned that the Nigerian Copyright Act empowers the commission to punish any citizen caught pirating or illegally dealing in intellectual property.

He said those in possession of the seized books faced penalties ranging from fines and forfeiture under the law. Asein noted that book piracy continued to harm national economic growth and deprived authors and publishers of the benefits of their works.