Piracy is the unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted material. Some people view it as a violation of copyright law or the illegal duplication and distribution of sound recording or computer software. Definitely it is not a natural occurance but a deliberate misappropriation of the fruit of another man’s labour [1,8,15]. The paper examines the magnitude of the crime “piracy” in the Eastern part of Nigeria especially in their markets like to the damaging effect it has on intellectual property rites of the individuals. A 20-item questionnaire was designed, distributed, collected and analysed. The effect revealed that it had far reaching negative consequences on the individuals as well as the government of the day. Strategies for the combating of piracy in Nigeria were also outlined.

creative industries, zero tolerance for piracy, Nigerian, economy, strategies for combating piracy