Copyright

A Summary of the Nigerian Law of Copyright

/ Scribe of the Tword / 6 Comments

 

This piece summarises the Nigerian Law of Copyright, with a particular focus on literary and musical works.

 

According to the Copyright Act of Nigeria, the following shall be eligible for copyright-

(a) literary works; (which includes, irrespective of literary quality, novels, stories and poetical works; plays, stage directions, film scenarios and broadcasting scripts; choreographic works, computer programmes; text-books, treatises, histories, biographies, essays and articles; letters, reports and memoranda; lectures addresses and sermons; and other similar works)

(b) musical works; (which means means any composition, irrespective of musical quality and includes works composed for musical accompaniment.)

(c) artistic works;

(d) cinematograph works;

(e) sound recording; (which means the first fixation of a sequence of sound capable of being perceived aurally and of being reproduced, but does not include a soundtrack associated with a cinematographic film.)

(f) broadcasts.

A literary, musical, or artistic work shall not be eligible for copyright unless-

(a) sufficient effort has been expended on making the work to give it an original character;

(b) the work has been fixed in any definite medium of expression now known or later to be developed, from which it can be perceived, reproduced or otherwise communicated either directly or with the aid of any machine or device (e.g. on paper, stone, on a computer hard-drive, on a blog-hosting server).

 

Copyright in a work shall be exclusive right to control the doing in Nigeria of any of the following acts (for literary or musical works):

(i) reproduce the work any material form;

(ii) publish the work;

(iii) perform the work in public;

(iv) produce, reproduce, perform or publish any translation of the work;

(v) make any cinematograph film or a record in respect of the work;

(vi) distribute to the public, for commercial purposes, copies of the work, by way of rental, lease, hire, loan or similar arrangement;

(vii) broadcast or communicate the work to the public by a loud speaker or any other similar device;

(viii) make an adaptation of the work;

(ix) do in relation to a translation or an adaptation of the work, any of the acts specified in relation to the work in sub-paragraphs (I) to (vii) of this paragraph;

 

Copyright in a sound recording shall be exclusive right to control in Nigeria-

(a) the direct or indirect reproduction, broadcasting or communication to the public of the whole or a substantial part of the recording either in its original form or in any form recognisably derived from the original;

(b) the distribution to the public for commercial purposes of copies of the work by way of rental, lease, hire, loan or similar arrangement.

 

WHO OWNS THE COPYRIGHT?

  1. Usually, the author or composer of the work;
  2. If Person X commissions Person Y to author the work (Y not being X’s employee or apprentice), or if Y makes it in the course of his employment, copyright belongs to Y, unless the contract between X and Y states otherwise.
  3. If the work is made in the course of employment in an organisation that issues newspapers, magazines or other periodicals, copyright belongs to the company, unless contract says otherwise.

 

WHO IS THE AUTHOR OF A MUSICAL WORK?

Musical Work usually comprises the Musical Composition and Sound Recording.

Musical Composition consists of the music as written, as well as any accompanying words (lyrics). The sound recording, on the other hand, results from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken, or other sounds into a tangible medium that can be played back.

The author of the composition is the writer and/or the lyricist. Author of the sound recording is the composer(s) or the sound engineer, or both. However, it’s possible for the contract between the composer and the sound engineer to state who owns the copyright.

WHAT IS COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENT?

Copyright is infringed by any person who without the licence or authorisation of the owner of the copyright-

(a) does, or cause any other person to do an act, the doing of which is controlled by copyright;

(b) imports into Nigeria, otherwise than for his private or domestic use, any article in respect of which copyright is infringed under paragraph (a) of this subsection;

(c) exhibits in public any article in respect of which copyright is infringed under paragraph (a) of this subsection;

(d) distributes by way of trade, offer for sale, hire or otherwise or for any purpose prejudicial to the owner of the copyright, any article in respect of which copyright is infringed under paragraph (a)of this subsection;

(e) makes or has in his possession, plates, master tapes, machines, equipment or contrivances used for the purpose of making infringed copies of the work;

(f) permits a place of public entertainment or of business to be used for a performance in the public of the work, where the performance constitutes an infringed of the copyright in the work, unless the person permitting the place to be used is not aware, and had no reasonable ground for suspecting that the performance would be an infringement of the copyright;

(g) performs or cause to be performed for the purposes of trade or business or as supporting facility to a trade or business or as supporting facility to a trade or business, any work in which copyright subsists.

 

JUDICIAL RELIEF/REMEDIES FOR INFRINGEMENT

  1. Damages – money, punitvely
  2. Injunction – an order of the court
  3. Account – hand over all the income from unlicensed sales/reproduction
  4. Others (as court deems fit).

 

DURATION OF COPYRIGHT

Type of Work Author Date of Expiration of Copyright
Literary, musical or artistic works other than photographs Known Human Author 70 years after the end of the year in which the author dies.
Known Joint Authors 70 years after the end of the year in which the author dies; ‘death of the author’ taken to refer to the author who last dies.
Anonymous or Pseudonymous Author 70 years after the end of the year in which the work was first published.
Government or Body Corporate 70 years after the end of the year in which the work was first published.
Cinematographic Films & Photographs 50 years after the end of the year in which the work was first published.
Sound recordings 50 years after the end of the year in which the recording was first published.
Broadcasts 50 years after the end of the year in which the broadcast first took place.
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The COSON Summit on Digital Licensing

/ Scribe of the Tword / 9 Comments

COSON (the Copyright Society of Nigeria) hosted a summit on digital licensing at the Ikeja Protea, on Monday the 12th of August 2013. The purpose of the summit was to discuss the challenges posed to the industry by digital formats for musical works and sound recordings. In attendance were lawyers, record label owners, recording artists, VAS companies (ringtones, caller tunes, etc.), as well as other stakeholders such as representatives of the Record Label Owners Association and the Audio Video CD Sellers Association of Nigeria (AVSAN).

 

The Chairman of COSON, Chief Tony Okoroji, led a panel of moderators that included Efe Omorogbe (Now Muzik), Audu Maikori (Chocolate City), Mark Redguard (Spinlet), Erelu Keji Okunowo (Industry Veteran), as well as a representative of the Nigerian Copyright Commission.

 

After Chief Okoroji took the gathering through the evolution of recording formats from vinyl to 8-track to cassette to compact disc to MP3 and other digital formats, the discussions very quickly split into 3 strains – skilled lawyers/judges are either small in number or not well-known, contracts are not respected, the industry is too fragmented and “disorganised” and offline downloads. Brief summaries and then my 50 kobo on these key issues.

 

LAWYERS AND THE JUDICIARY

One of the problems facing the industry is that many lawyers drafting and reviewing licensing agreements do not have the requisite specialist knowledge. As Managing Partner of G. O. Shodipo & Co, Mr Femi Fajolu, said, “…if you use the same lawyers for maritime as you use for general corporate work, you will sink in the water.” Or, as Audu Maikori said, “Dentists don’t perform eye surgeries.”

 

The danger in non-specialist lawyers preparing specialist agreements is that you are more likely to have bad agreements – the sort that precipitate litigation. Litigation is also an unattractive proposition because apart from its duration (and lack of assets to satisfy judgment debts, in the case of most artists), there is also the problem of not having a sufficient number of judges versed enough to properly settle IP disputes.

 

The summit proposed training sessions for artists and the judiciary. Industry practitioners were advised to contact the Intellectual Property Lawyers Association of Nigeria (IPLAN) for lawyers with specialist knowledge. It was also advised that IPLAN begin to lobby the National Judicial Commission and the judicial institute on appointing judges with IP expertise.

 

Nothing to add, for me.

 

OFFLINE DOWNLOADS

I was unfamiliar with this term before yesterday, though well aware of the activity it describes. Offline downloads occur when, for example, you hand your phone or tablet memory card to a laptop entrepreneur with a library of several thousand songs, some of which he copies onto your memory card for the paltriest of fees; something like 5 or 10 naira per track. Apparently, these guys have become such an issue that even Alaba marketers are complaining. I repeat, Alaba is complaining!!! AVSAN was especially passionate about this, though someone needs to tell them that their model is in terminal decline anyway.

 

This is an extremely tough nut to crack. Proposals considered for tackling it included licensing and persistent raids. However, as they’re literally everywhere, raiding them, no matter how frequently, would be akin to fighting vermin on a 5-acre farm with only a can of home insecticide – very minimal distortion. Licensing would also be tricky. How would pricing be enforced? What would compel people currently evading “capture” to voluntarily come forward for licensing? Should we even really be considering licensing – will the government also license operators of illegal crude refineries, for example?

 

Perhaps market-place executives need to start being held jointly liable for allowing copyright infringement go on within the markets? That way, the local market unions would be compelled to drive such people away from many public spaces. This would probably require a revision to existing laws, however, as people can only be liable for crimes as defined in existing laws.

 

OVER-FRAGMENTATION

“How do you know the real owner of the copyright in a musical work?” “How do you know you have not obtained your license to distribute digitally from the wrong person?”

 

These questions become more relevant as more and more disgruntled artists leave the labels where they became established, to set up their own companies. Inherent in that is the issue of attitudes within the industry to contracts and whether contracts have been properly terminated. However, there is the practical question, where the artist leaves properly, of ownership of new material.

 

Proposals put forward to solve this included mandatory copyright registration (which is not currently required under the law), the establishment of an authentic industry copyright registry and, most worryingly for me, mandatory registration/identification as an entertainment industry practitioner.

 

I think, in considering “sanitising” the industry, a few issues need to be borne in mind. First of all, registration of intellectual property, even where it is mandatory, is only prima facie evidence of ownership. What this means is that anyone who can demonstrate superior title can rebut the title granted by the government in respect of the intellectual property.

 

Secondly, the trend in Nigeria, once older folk start talking sanitisation or regulation is that financial and regulatory barriers to entry begin to crop up. In some cases, the promoters of regulation push for their body to become “chartered”, after which it usually becomes illegal for unchartered people to work within the trade. Caution must be taken that industry veterans do not stifle the creativity of younger participants with whatever remedial actions are agreed upon.

 

Overall, the summit was a useful meeting, the highlight of which, for me, was meeting Laolu Akins. A committee has now been formed to map out an industry strategy to tackle the digital challenge, and we look forward to its report in the coming weeks.

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