Kenya Copyright Board launches Partners Against Piracy (PAP) Campaign to Deal with Piracy of Copyright Works
12 March 2020
Kenya ranked amongst the highest consumers of illegal content in Africa. This unwelcome reputation must be ended.
The Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) today launched a multi-stakeholder awareness program dubbed Partners Against Piracy (PAP).
KECOBO has now put together a coalition of like-minded corporates, industry associations and individual rights holders to help fight the menace countrywide that can be attested in attendance here today.
Recent reports and data provided on cybercrime including content piracy especially over the internet has identified Kenya as a hotspot. Unfortunately, average Kenyans are unaware of the unintended consequences of their piracy actions/ activities.
Partners Against Piracy is an initiative of the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) to consolidate awareness against piracy. The campaign has the purpose to educate Kenyans about these unintended consequences which threaten the very lives of Kenyan communities and society at large. The anti-piracy public awareness campaign has been launched with the aim to educate the public and raise awareness about the impact of content piracy activities on the creative sector.
As economies and cultures are drawn closer together and more inter-connected through global networks of trade, capital flows, and spread of technology, so is the rise of content piracy. Technology offers unprecedented access to content that allows would-be pirates to operate.
In a recent report by Irdeto, the world leader in digital platform security, content piracy cost government, sports and the creative industry an estimated 50 billion US dollars globally (https://resources.irdeto.com/white-papers-e-books-reports/irdeto-global-consumer-piracy-threat-2018 ). KECOBO is glad for the partnership with Irdeto and for the data on trends in digital piracy.
This illegal practice takes many forms across Africa and globally from pirate platforms, illegal screening and streaming, pirated DVDs and storage devices, cable and signal piracy among others.
The Kenya Copyright Board and its partners understand the impact that content piracy has on the Kenyan economy and communities and are committed to addressing this issue both from a policy and a policing standpoint. KECOBO has noted with appreciation the achievements one of our partners Mdundo has had in conjunction with Audiolock in this area.
While Launching the Program Mr Edward Sigei, KECOBO Executive Director stated that “No single stakeholder can address this issue successfully on their own. It requires a collaborative effort from stakeholders including policy makers, law enforcement, media, business and community partners across Kenya and indeed the continent, to curb these illegal activities that are costing our economy and endangering the lives of our communities. We are proud to be partnering in this campaign to shed a light on and educate our communities about the dangers of content piracy”.
The Partners Against Piracy campaign is a multi-pronged approach that includes building partnerships for public education and antipiracy measures during the course of the three-month campaign period.
The launch today represents the commencement of a public awareness campaign on social media, print, television and radio addressing the users of copyright to join by denying pirate merchants business. The campaign will help the public to identify pirates from genuine products while encouraging them to pause before they make purchase decisions by highlighting the impact and beneficiaries of such purchase or subscription. As such we shall be highlighting the impact fake copyright products has from the perspective of major copyright sectors, the authors and rights holders, government revenue, business and investment and education. The campaign will appeal to the conscience and the good faith of the purchasers of goods.
KECOBO will use the PAP campaign to sensitise the public on the changes in the law that support enforcement in the online environment. KECOBO, rights holder associations and other law enforcement agencies will continue working together to ensure that sustainable partnerships will decisively deal with this scourge by shining a light on content piracy.
Please be on the lookout for upcoming PAP initiatives in the weeks and months ahead, including unveiling of more partners and join the fight against piracy.
For more information visit the Partners Against Piracy social media pages.
@PAPiracy , #fightpiracy, @papiracy #KECOBO
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