Africa writers asked to
protect works
African writers asked to
protect works
Accra (Greater Accra) 15 November 2000
Professor Kofi Anyidoho, Head of English Department of the University of Ghana, on Monday said African writers and publishers should put identification marks on their publications to make it easy for the public to differentiate between genuine and pirated copies of their works.
This, he said, is the best way to stem the high rate of book piracy prevailing in Africa.
Prof. Anyidoho made the call at a seminar on book piracy at the First Ghana International Book Fair, dubbed GIBF '2000.
The seminar, organised by the United Kingdom-based Heinemann African Writers Series (HAWS), was to evolve strategies to safeguard the future of African literature in the 21st century.
Prof. Anyidoho noted that African governments do not attach much importance to protecting intellectual property as they do physical resources.
He said the situation has left the business of copyright and protection of intellectual property almost in private hands, adding that this makes it easy for criminals to pirate works of writers, publishers and musicians.
"It is high time our governments became more serious with the anti-piracy campaign and the protection of intellectual property in general to encourage writers and publishers to produce quality works," he said.
Mrs. Becky Ayebia Clarke, Literature Submission Editor of HAWS, said though the figure on book piracy in Africa is not readily available, a HAWS study shows that it is very high, with Nigeria leading in the criminality.
She said South Africa, most parts of Latin America, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East are some of the major markets of pirated works from Africa.
"The European Union exports some 500 million US dollars of printed material to Africa every year," she said. "Rights and licenses are sold to Africa, yet relatively few rights to works originated by African publishers are sold to countries outside."
She said that recently 3,200 copies of various publications worth 30 million cedis were seized in Ghana in a raid on perpetrators of pirated works.
GRi…/