Intellectual work creators have been advised to always collaborate with Nigerian Copyright Commission, NCC to forestall all forms of exploitation. The Assistant Director of Nigeria Copyright Commission, Rivers State Chapter, Mr. Joseph Ojika gave this admonition in an interview with journalists. Mr. Ojika emphasised that NCC has put in place measures to protect the intellectual products of creators to give them the value of their work.
“In Nigeria, we have an organization for musicians called the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria. It is an organization whose job is to monitor the use of musical work within Nigerian territory and to collect the dividends. Then we have to Collective Management Organisation. This is in every genre of work of copyright. In the movie, we have it as the Audio-Visual Rights Society of Nigeria.
But some professionals are not aware of the existence of these bodies. There are more, beyond Nigeria territory as we are in the global village, Nigerian work are being exploitated all over the world especially western nations. Through some agencies of NCC the people there repatriate the dividend to Nigeria”, he explained. Mr. Ojika enumerated work that are covered by copyright law to include books, movies, cinematography, sound recording, artistic works, building designs.
He stressed that the violation of copyright law is both a criminal and civil offense and stated the penalty for its violation. “When you engage in reproducing illegally, it is a heavy offense different from when you are caught in the line of commerce. Before now the penalty was not more than two years jail term. Now what we have is not less than five years jail term.
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So the court has the liberty, the judge can even slam ten years because what is stated in the law is important for the members of the public to know that it is not business as usual”, he emphasised. The Assistant Director of NCC Rivers State Chapter, stressed that the limitation of copyright law noting that it does not apply when it is used as an instructional material. An academic, a Professor of Educational Management at Rivers State University, Chikweru Amadi described copyright law as a legal framework that grants producers of intellectual work the right t enjoy the dividend accrued from their products.
He said the law bestows the owner of the work the right to recreate, disseminate, and control how the work is used. “In Nigeria, copyright protection is governed by the Copyright Act of 1988, which amendment was made between 1992 and 1999. Now, the duration of copyright in Nigeria, which includes literary, musical, and artistic works, lasts for the lifetime of the owner and seventy years after his death.
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If the work had more than one producer, it lasted till the death of the last owner and seventy years after his death. Where the identity of the author is unknown, it lasts for seventy years after the date of the publication. Collective work from contributions by various authors as the case may be in the university system, duration is seventy years from the last date of the production. Sound recordings and film productions right last for fifty years from the date of production or date of creation.
Broadcast and cable programmes are protected for fifty years from the date of broadcast and transmission. I want to state that it is important to know that these things are subjects of review and change. It is advisable that any person who wants to make the use of any of these materials should seek legal right as the case may be”, he stated. Professor Amadi however explained that there is a clause known as ” fair use” which authorizes an individual to make use of a copyrighted material.
Even if you have derivative work, the author has right to create adaptation of his work based on his original. There is also what is known as ‘point performance and display work’ the author can authorize the display of the work such as theatrical production and other exhibitions. In transition of moral rights, authors may also have the moral rights including the rights to attribution”, he noted. The academic advised those using the net to verify the copyright status of the materials online to avoid violating copyright law.
