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The growth of the digital space has ushered in many opportunities for creatives just as it has also opened them to many risks. Intellectual property theft, which sits atop the list of the many risks, remains a big concern for creatives across the world.
In Nigeria, a 2019 report by the Nigerian Copyrights Commission (NCC) revealed that Nigeria loses N918 Trillion ($3 billion) annually to the activities of pirates, while in the UK and US, the figure sits at £9 billion and $300 million respectively. The figure from Nigeria when compared to the cases of IP theft in other parts of the world shows that Nigerian creatives are dealing with a big monster robbing them of their benefits.
The inability of many creatives to legally protect their content sits atop the list of the many risks they contend with daily.
A new Bill that could help reshape the copyright landscape and better protect the work of Nigerian creatives was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, March 22, 2023.
The 2022 Copyright Act focuses on protecting the rights of content creators, authors, performers, and broadcasters from relevant copyright infringement issues.
According to Lynda Alphaeus, a Director at the Nigerian Copyright Commission, the Copyright Act is a welcomed development as it seeks to cover the lacuna in the old Copyright Act which did not specifically protect the intellectual property of creators in the cyberspace.
“We saw what happened during the pandemic, the world has become a global village, and doing business in the cyberspace has become a new norm. So it became imperative that the law should be expanded to specifically take care of the protection of intellectual property works,” she told Netng on Thursday, March 30, 2023.
The Act which provides exclusive rights to a creator to authorise the reproduction, communication, and broadcasting of their work is a way to ensure the proper enforcement of copyright in the digital space.
“This act seeks to enhance protection of copyright and neighbouring rights, provide appropriate protection and improve the effective administration, regulation, and enforcement of copyright on the digital space,” Lynda added.
In particular, a Section of the Act provides protection for audiovisual content while defining it as an “aggregate of a series of related visual images with or without sound, which is capable of being shown as a moving picture by means of a mechanical, electronic or other device and irrespective of the nature of the material on which the visual images and sounds are carried and includes the soundtrack but does not include a broadcast.”
This means that media content, including pictures, videos, sound recordings, and other productions created by a person cannot be copied or republished without the creator’s consent.
Another highlight of the act is that it ensures that creatives are able to benefit financially and otherwise from their intellectual efforts. In a section of the Act, performers are legally entitled to payment from the party who arranges an audiovisual production of their live performance. In addition to this, only the performer can authorise a fixing of his performance in any format.
However, creators also need to be careful when giving away their exclusive rights.
Lynda Alphaeus also explained that although “the law provides exclusive rights to the performer such as fixing his work, if a performer gives his right to someone to authorise a fixing in an audiovisual format and there is no agreement to the contrary it means that he has given up that his exclusive right as the fixer is now the producer of the audiovisual work and therefore the fixer now has the exclusive right.
“If express instruction is not given as to what and what the fixer is allowed to do with your audiovisual work, a creator has forfeited their content exclusive right. However, they do not forfeit their right to fair renumeration” she added.
In case of infringement, offenders who go against the performer’s rights would attract a fine of nothing less than ₦100,000 or imprisonment for a time not less than a year or both. In a case where the offender is a corporate body, they are liable to a ₦2,000,000 fine. However, there are criminal situations where the offender can be sentenced to nothing less than 5 years imprisonment.
“The principal objectives of the new law, as outlined in section 1 are to: protect the rights of authors and ensure just rewards and recognition for their intellectual efforts; provide appropriate limitations and exceptions to guarantee access to creative works; facilitate Nigeria’s compliance with obligations arising from relevant international copyright treaties and conventions; and enhance the capacity of the Nigerian Copyright Commission for effective regulation, administration, and enforcement,” Nasiru Ila, Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters said in a statement issued on Thursday, March 23, 2023.
With this legislation, creatives can seek legal sanctions for civil infringements as regards digital content. However, Section 20 of the Act lists the exemptions to which a creator can sue for copyright.
Among these exemptions include fair dealing which is the use of digital content for work of parody, satire, and caricature. Other exemptions include non-commercial purposes, private study, review and report of current events, incidental inclusion of an artwork in an audiovisual form, extract of a quotation from a book but acknowledgment is important, and many more. Lynda Alphaeus also disclosed that non-commercial libraries are allowed to publish about three copies of a book out of stock for the use of the public library.
Although the act has been signed by the President, it would not be available to the public until it has been gazetted. Whichever way this plays out, this is a win for creatives across Nigeria.
The post What The 2022 Copyright Act Means For Nigerian Entertainers And The Creative Industry appeared first on Nigerian Entertainment Today.
