The
need for copyright:
The primary function of copyright is to
protect the proceeds of a person’s work. This protection is of great importance
to almost everyone-artists, lawyers, doctors, designers, architects, lecturers,
etc.
Nigeria derives her law on copyright from
the English law just like most parts of her legislation. The Copyright Act Cap C28 LFN, 2004 is the
major legislation on this subject in Nigeria and it provides inter alia the establishment of a body known
as the Nigerian Copyright Commission as well as the Copyright Licensing Panel.
Which
works are protected?
Not all works enjoy statutory protection.
The law has laid down the types of works which are recognized and which are
capable of enjoying statutory protection. Section
1(1) of the Copyright Act gives a
clear and wide meaning of ‘works’ and they include literary, musical and
artistic works irrespective of the literary, musical and artistic quality,
cinematograph film, sound recording and broadcast. By section 1(2) the Act provides that a literary, musical or artistic
work shall not be eligible for copyright unless sufficient effort has been expended on making the work to give
it an original character and
the work has to have been fixed in any definite medium of expression now known
or later to be developed from which it can be perceived, reproduce or otherwise
communicated either directly or with the aid of any machine or device.
The first question that arises is: when
will “sufficient effort” be deemed to have been put into the work to give it an
original character? The Act does not provide any guiding principle but such may
be derived from decided cases. An example of such a case is OFFREY v. CHIEF S.O. OLA & ORS. (unreported suit no: HOS/23/68
decided 27th June 1969. The Court held in that case that
copyright would exist in a given product if that product is the result of some
substantial or real expenditure of mental or physical energies of the producer
and the labour or skill was not a negligible or commonplace one. The court
further held that the amount of labour, skill, judgment or ingenuity required
to support a claim for copyright successfully was a question of fact and degree
in every case. See also MACMILLAN &
CO v. COOPER (1923) 40 T.L.R. 186 and ALEXANDER
v. MACKENZIE 8 S.C. Cass 2nd Ser. 748.
The next question that arises is: how does
one determine the originality of a work? In the case of UNIVERSITY OF LONDON PRESS LTD v. UNIVERSITY TUTORIAL PRESS LTD. (1916)
2 CH. 601, Peterson J. stated “the
word ‘original’ does not in this connection mean that the work must be the
expression of original or inventive thought…the originality which is required
relates to the expression of the thought…the work must not be copied from
another work…”
By s
1(3), artistic work is not eligible for copyright if at the time when
the work is made it is intended by the author to be used as a model or pattern
to be multiplied by any industrial process.
Register
of copyrights:
There is no Registrar of Copyright and no
registry in which copyright works are registered. The Act however in section 14 provides that publishers,
printers, producers or manufacturers of works in which copyright subsists must
keep a register of all works produced by them showing:
·
The name of the author
·
The title
·
The year of production
·
The quality of the work
produced
Section
23 provides that any person in contravention of the
above provision shall be guilty of an offence and be liable on conviction to a
fine, not less than N10,000.00. The Copyright Commission shall also maintain an
effective data bank on authors and their works- s34(2)(e).
Who
is entitled to have his work protected by copyright?
By s2(1)(i),
only a person who is a Nigerian citizen may have his or her work conferred with copyright. In the instance where there are several authors, as long as one of
the authors is either a Nigerian citizen or is domiciled in Nigeria, such work
may be protected by copyright. See LEVYN
v RUTLEY (1871) L.R. 6 C.P. 523. The author of a work does not need to
satisfy any other condition provided by any other legislation to enjoy the
protection of copyright. See the case of IFEANYI
OKOYO & ANOR v PROMPTER QUALITY SERVICES (NIG.) LTD & ANOR (1996) FHCR
814 where it was held that the plaintiffs, though not qualified architects
under s 1 Architects (Registration etc.)
Act, Cap 20, would have their works eligible for copyright under ss 1 & 2(1) of the Copyright Act once they are qualified
under the Copyright Act.
Lifespan
of copyright:
The Copyright
Act in its First Schedule
provides that in respect of literary, musical or artistic works other than
photographs, copyright in the work expires 70years after the end of the year in
which the author dies. In the case of cinematograph films and photographs, the
copyright expires 50years after the end of the year in which the recording was
first made while in the case of broadcast, the copyright will expire 50years
after the end of the year in which the broadcast first took place. The Act
provides that in the case of joint authorship, the relevant death is that of
the last surviving author i.e. the author who dies last, irrespective of
whether he is qualified under the Act or not.
NOTE: Where a person’s copyright has been
infringed, such person may enforce his or her right through civil proceedings
where damages or other appropriate orders may be awarded by the court.
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