Assessing The Role Of Demand And Supply Aspects In Book Piracy: Case Of Nairobi City County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Piracy is a willful theft of intellectual and creative efforts of others due to increased demand for academic books in our learning institutions. It is a social and economic menace that involves the outright reproduction and distribution of the creative works of others, for commercial purposes, without the consent of the copyright owner. The general objective of the study was to establish the determinants of book piracy in Nairobi City County. The specific objectives were to determine the practices and patterns and to investigate the demand side, supply side and legislative/ legal side determinants of book piracy in Nairobi City County. This study employed descriptive design. The target population for this study street vendors, secondary school teachers and parents, book shop owners and consultant firms‟ employees. A sample consisted of 170 respondents. The quantitative data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires while qualitative data were collected using Key Informant Interview (KII) guide. The tools were pre-tested for reliability and validity. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze data. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the results. Chi-square (χ2) was used to determine the relationship between independent and dependent variables. Significance level 0.05 was used. Approval to undertake research was granted by the graduate school of Kenyatta University and permission obtained from National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI). Informed consent was sought from all participants. The results indicated that 41 (27.3%) of the respondents agreed to have photocopied and sold hardcopies of original books, followed by printing at 40 (26.7%), then scanning at 37 (24.7%) and the least was downloading and distributing online at 28 (18.7%) without authorisation. Chi-square was used to ascertain the association between education level and engagement in book piracy. The analysis revealed a significant relationship χ2=10.205, DF=3, P=0. 017 with an effect size of 0.31 based on Cramer‟s V. Further, descriptive analysis used revealed that 43.5% of the supply side respondents had access to internet, 34.8% had access to scanners and printers and the least (21.7%) had access to photocopy machines. The relationship between access to technology and book piracy was sought. According to Chi Square analysis, access to technology had a significant association with book piracy ((χ2=6.955; DF=2, P=0.031) with an effect size of 0.43 based on Cramer‟s V test. Finally, the findings on the law of enforcement revealed that 129 (88.4%) of the respondents indicated that the enforcement was not efficient or adequate. Only 17 (11.6%) respondents indicated that enforcement of the law on book piracy was sufficient. The results of chi-square also indicated that there was a significant relationship between lack of law enforcement and the level of engagement in book piracy (χ2=5.293; DF=1, P= 0.021) with effect size of 0.19. In conclusion the research findings showed that demand side, supply side and legal/legislation side have positive and significant effects on book piracy in Nairobi City County. The research recommends among others that there is need to supply cheaper books to local readers to discourage buying of pirated books. The right holders should protect their works by putting special copyright features. Kenya Copyright Board should create awareness to all stakeholders on the legal issues associated with on book piracy.