The need for copyright
The primary function of copyright is to protect the proceeds of a person’s work. This protection is important to almost everyone- artists, lawyers, doctors, designers, architects, lecturers, etc.
Nigeria derives her law on copyright from English law, just like most of her legislation. The Copyright Act Cap C28 LFN, 2004 is the major legislation on this subject in Nigeria. It provides inter alia the establishment of a body known as the Nigerian Copyright Commission and the Copyright Licensing Panel.
Which works are protected?
Not all works enjoy statutory protection. The law has laid down the types of works that are recognized and capable of enjoying statutory protection. Section 1(1) of the Copyright Act gives a clear and wide meaning of ‘works,’ 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 doing 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 negligible or commonplace. 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 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 done, 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. If 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.
The lifespan of copyright:
The Copyright Act, in its First Schedule, provides that in respect of literary, musical or artistic works other than photographs, the copyright in the work expires 70 years after the end of the year the author dies. In the case of cinematograph films and photographs, the copyright expires 50 years after the recording was first made, while in the case of broadcast, the copyright will expire 50 years 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 the court may award damages or other appropriate orders.
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