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CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to the Study
Copyright
violation has become a global concern in contemporary Nigeria and the world at
large. Book piracy is an offence that poses great threat to publishing as a
business in Nigeria for education, government and the society at large.
Bot-mang (2006) reveals that piracy destroys creativity, diminishes talents and
denies the intellectuals of the rights to the benefits of their property. There
have been increasing concerns from authors and publishing industry in Nigeria
over illegal book trade. This is because, pirates do not bear origination of
published materials yet they sell and profit from fake products in the markets
depriving the publishers and authors of the benefits of their works. Adelekan
(2011) posits that Piracy is an illegal and illegitimate reproduction of other
people‘s works without their consent and those that engage in this business eat
from the sweat of other people who must have invested their intellect, time and
resources. To publish a book takes longer period, energies and a lot of
processes for editing, designing, layout, illustration and proof- reading.
After this rigorous endeavor the pirates produce exact copies and circulate
them favorably in markets with genuine books, and have large profits by selling
them significantly in lower price than the original publishers’ products, who
bear the cost of royalties to author and other over head cost. It is in this
regard Kolawole (2005) opines that pirates take major shares of the publishing
industry in Nigeria. Moreover, large scale photocopying by the students and
teaching community, who should have otherwise purchased their original copies,
also deprive the authors and publishers of their dues. This form of mass
photocopying of books is largely prevalent in Nigeria, especially in and around
educational institutions. Students borrow books from libraries and then get
them photocopied from the photocopier at the institution. While copyright law
permits photocopying of literary works for limited private uses such as
research, review or criticism, what happens, many a time is that the entire
book is photocopied including the cover pages. At the end of this, the students
and the photocopy operators’ gain, but the publishers lose huge in all
respects. Unfortunately, the institutions turn a blind eye to this. The illegal
photocopying leads to low sales of the original materials.
Furthermore,
in most cases, pirated books do not have the quality of original work. Therefore,
the system of education would suffer if students rely on fake copies of text
books for their educational pursuits. The overall effect of these discourages
scholarship and creativity and hinders cultural and intellectual development in
the society. Piracy is a problem in the Nigeria despites Nigeria’s active
participation in the international conventions.
Copyright
was introduced and entrenched in the Nigeria’s Copyright Act; one of the most
salutary provisions of the Act is the conferment of the body with the
responsibility of enforcing copyright laws. The Nigerian Copyright Commission
was established to shoulder the responsibility of protecting all matters
related to copyright in the country.
The
law gives protection to copyright owners with stiff penalties in the event of
violation, yet publishers cry out over the increase in book piracy in the
country despite the existence of the decree supported the establishment of the
Nigerian Copyright Commission. Achebiri (1995) observes that the whole issue of
book piracy has become a source of great concern as it has assumed an alarming
rate throughout the country. This assertion has been supported by the
International Intellectual Property Alliance (2006), reports that piracy level
in Nigeria is nearly 85% for all sections with estimate among the highest in
the world. It is based on the aforementioned situations that this study is
undertaken to investigate the matter.
1.1.1
Concept of Copyright
Copyright
is a legal term describing rights given to creators for their literary and
artistic work ( Mahmood and Ilyas). It ordinarily means that the creator of the
work alone has the right to make copies of his work for himself and others.
Copyright piracy is a phenomenon that is prevalent worldwide. It means unauthorized
reproduction, importing or distribution either of the whole or a substantial
part of works protected by copyright. The author of a copyrighted work, being
the owner, enjoys rights to produce, to publish, to adopt, to translate and to
perform it in public. The owner can also sell, assign, license or bequeath the
copyright to another party if he wishes so (Nair, etal 1999). If any person,
other than the copyright owner or his authorized party undertakes any of the
above mentioned activities with respect to a copyrighted product, it amounts to
infringement of the copyright. Copyright piracy, like any other theft, is a
loss to the owners of the property. Besides economic loss, piracy also
adversely affects the creative potential of a society as it denies creative
people such as authors and artists of their legitimate dues.
Therefore,
copyright refers to a body of exclusive rights to protect the works of authors
and other creative persons against copying or unauthorized public performance,
which may be literary, musical, dramatic, motion, picture, audio-visual work,
sound recordings and computer programs. Copyright does not protect every work
of authorship, to qualify for copyright protection; a work must be both fixed
and original. The law considers a work to be fixed if it is recorded in some
permanent format. To be original, the work must not be copied from previously
existing material and must display at least a reasonable amount of creativity
(Schechter, 2009). In addition, copyright only protects the words, notes, or
images that the creator has used. It does not protect any idea or concepts
revealed by the work.
1.1.2
Historical Background to Copyright
Almost
every nation has some form of copyright protection laws for its authors and
artists. Several important international treaties also deal with copyright law
among the nations. The invention of printing press predates the copyright law.
However, with the invention of printing press in the mid 15th century, books
had become cheaper and more widely available in Europe. To reduce the risk of
rivals printing of politically dangerous books, the royal government of England
granted a publishing monopoly to group of publishers, all of whom belonged to a
guild called the stationers company (Schechter, 2009). The publishers published
materials that were not offensive to the royal authority. When ever, a member
of the guild obtained the right to publish a book all other members would
refrain from publishing the same book. This private arrangement was an early
form of copyright. It was replaced in 1710 when the British parliament passed a
law called the Statute of Anne, named for Queen Anne, who reigned in England
from 1702 to 1714 (Schechter, 2009). This was the first real copyright law in
modern history. The law granted authors the exclusive right to authorize the
printing or reprinting of books for a limited number of years. The
Constitutional Convention Delegates who drafted the U.S constitution in1787
were familiar with the statute of Anne and with the importance of copyright as
an incentive for authors to create new works. Article 1, Section 8 of that
constitution gave the Congress of the United State the power to promote the
progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times, to authors
and inventors, exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries
(Beatrice, 2011). This provision gave the federal government the power to enact
copyright and patent statutes. The Congress adopted the first U.S copyright law
in 1790. The copyright law underwent series of amendment, often in reaction to
new inventions.
1.1.3
History of Copyright in Nigeria
Copyright
law is a universal concept and a form of protection for ideas created which is
provided by the laws of any sovereign state. According to Agudu (1992) the
copyright law in Nigeria dated back to the colonial era, with its source in the
copyright Act of 1911. Nigeria continued to apply the English Act of 1911 until
1970. In agreement with this, Ocheme (2000) remarks that despite Nigerians
attainment of self rule in 1960, the British statutory law that is the
copyright Act of 1911, the common law and the doctrines of equity of England
remained the major sources of copyright law in Nigeria.
In
1970, the English Act of 1911 was repealed by the Nigerian copyright Decree.
This seems to have put to rest the ghost of the 1911 Act which, despite being
abolished in England since 1956, had continued to strife in Nigeria for over
half a century. This signifies that Nigerian government hardly understood the
essence of the copyright law and therefore was careless about it. It was
generally recognized that this old law contained a number of inadequacies.
Odunowo (2002) opines that the law recognizes the rights of copyright owners
but failed to provide adequate remedies to the violation of those rights.
1.1.4
Nigerian Copyright Commission
Nigerian
Copyright Commission was established in 1989 by the Copyright Council with a
mandate to oversee copyright administration. Adewopo (2006) maintains that the
Nigerian Copyright Commission was established as a Council pursuant to the
Copyright Act (Cap 68 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 1990) in 1998 and
inaugurated in1989 as a Federal Government parastatal with the sole mandate for
the administration of all matters pertaining to copyright in Nigeria, and
latter upgraded to the status of a Commission. The Copyright Act was amended
twice by the Copyright (Amendment Decree No 98) of 1992 and the Copyright
(Amendment Decree No. 42) of 1999. It was established with a statutory mandate
to administer, protect promote and regulate copyright in Nigeria (Adoke, 2012).
The statutory amendments enable the commission to appoint copyright inspectors
with powers of investigation, arrest, seizure and prosecution in the
enforcement of the copyright law. The Nigerian Copyright Commission is the
statutory body charged with the administration of all copyright matters in
Nigeria. The commission runs seminars and workshops to educate the general
public and authors on copyright. Above all, the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria 1999, Part I, item 13 of its second schedule classifies
copyright on the exclusive legislative powers of the federation.
1.1.5
Rationale for the Creation of the Nigerian Copyright Commission
Creativity
is a key stone of progress and development, it is generally considered proper
that authors and other artists should have a reasonable return for their work.
It is in this regard, Ocheme (2000) opines that no property can be compared
with man’s creative production. This signifies that a man’s brain work should
be protected more than all other tangible property, to enable him enjoy the benefits
of his creativity. Copyright ensures certain minimum safeguards of the rights
of authors over their creations, thereby protecting and rewarding creativity.
Creativity being the keystone of progress, no civilized society can afford to
ignore the basic requirement of encouraging the same. Economic and social
development of a society is dependent on creativity. The protection provided by
copyright to the efforts of writers, artists, designers, dramatists, musicians,
architects and producers of sound recordings, cinematograph films and computer
software, creates an atmosphere conducive to creativity, which induces them to
create more and motivates others to create. No nation can develop where
creativity and intellectual property are susceptible to damage and destruction
instead of being protected and rewarded.
Nigerian
Copyright Commission was not established in order to restrict information. It
was created to ensure common justice for individuals and to encourage authors
for the general good of the society, without authors there could be no
publishing for education and social enrichment, and without the protection of
copyright, the world would never have had the explosion of knowledge that has
come through the books. The universal declaration of human rights from which
many modern copyright statutes derive their inspiration state that everyone has
the right to the protection of the moral and material interest resulting from
any scientific, literary, or artistic production of which he is the author
(Ibrahim,2002). The law of the copyrights rest on every clear principle that
anyone who by his skills and labor creates an original of whatever character
shall, for a limited period enjoy an exclusive right to copy the work. No one
else may for a season reaps what the copyright owner have sown (Kelvin &
Gillian, 2002). It is based on this that the Nigerian Copyright Commission was
established to encourage creative people to produce works of culture and to
provide incentive for the dissemination of these works.
Therefore,
the rationale for the Nigerian Copyright Commission is to encourage authors to
invest effort in creating new works of arts and literature. Dauda (2000)
observes that the Commission also aims at protecting the authors’ idea from
abuse and illegal exploitation by others. Copyright is the right of authors to
control the reproduction of his intellectual creation. It confers on the author
the authority to control his creation after disclosure and prevents others from
reproducing his personal expression without his consent. In this sense,
copyright is usually regarded as property of unique kind. Odonowo 2002
maintains that such rights have become components of existing legal culture of
most countries including Nigeria, enforceable by courts and respected by
society. This is because intellectual creativity in whatever form is an
essential pre-requisite for all social, economic and cultural development of a
nation. A complementary objective of Copyright Commission is to foster the
growth of learning and culture for the public good. Ibrahim (2002) remarks that
“a creative work is a product of mind and accordingly is regarded as a
manifestation of the authors’ personality as well as his economic benefits. The
authors’ right over his work is, therefore, viewed as entirely personal.” He
further states that, the purpose of the copyright systems is the protection of
the authors’ interest and creation of a favorable climate for the actualization
of their creation potentials. It can therefore, be said that the success of any
copyright system depends also on its ability to provide for authors needed
incentive by way of adequate remuneration. It seems quite obvious that Nigerian
Copyright Commission is mainly designed to protect an author, an artist and all
creative productions from the unlawful reproduction of his works. The creative
writer has full and unfettered protection of that which he had created and
should be able to reap full benefit there from (Agudu, 1992). Therefore, the
copyright system offers and gives the needed protection so that the creators
may use their intellect for the betterment of our nation. Perhaps the most
important aspect of a copyright is the economic right which enables the creator
to earn a living from his work. Ocheme (2000) posits that the justification for
copyright commission is primarily anchored on the necessity to encourage
creative activities locally without much dependence on foreign arts and
culture.
Department: Library and Information Science
Format: Microsoft Word
Format: Microsoft Word
Chapters: 1 - 5, Preliminary Pages, Abstract, References, Questionnaire
Delivery: Email
Delivery: Email
No. of Pages: 90
Price: 3000 NGN
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