Effects of book piracy on publishing in Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of book piracy on publishing in Nigeria. Three research questions were formulated as thus: what are the causes of book piracy in Nigeria? What types of books are being pirated? What are the effects of book piracy on book business in Nigeria? Survey research method was used for this study. The population of this study is the entire branch managers of the publishing companies in Kano, Anambra and Lagos states. The population of the study is sixty three. Purposive sampling was used to select the three states as sample of the study. While considering the manageable number of the subjects of this study; the researcher used the whole population. Questionnaires were used to collect data for this study. The data collected were presented and analyzed using frequency distribution tables and percentages. The findings showed that: high cost of original books, get- rich-quick syndromes, and scarcity of original books as reasons for the growing piracy network in Nigeria. The findings also revealed that educational books, religious books, trade books, recreational books and reference books are the types of books being pirated. However, educational books are the most pirated books while recreational and reference books are least pirated books. The study discovered that book piracy affects investment in publishing business; discourage creativity among Nigerians; increase unemployment in publishing sector; lowers profitability to publishing companies and revenue generation to government. The research recommends among others that publishing companies should make books available to the people so as to prevent the pirates from using any opportunity resulted by lack of stock at the wake of high demand in the markets.

Keywords: book piracy, book business, publishing, Nigeria, copyright Introduction