the copyright act 2022

THE COPYRIGHT ACT 2022 

The Copyright Bill 2022 was signed into law by the Nigerian President on the 17 day of March 2023, repealing the Copyright Act CAP C28 LFN 2004. The newly signed bill will conceivably be referred to as the Copyright Act of 2022. 

The new Copyright Act 2022 intends to simplify Nigeria’s compliance with international copyright accords, successfully protect the rights of authors while ensuring rewards and appreciation for their intellectual labours, provide apt limitations and exclusions to ensure access to creative works and improve the capability of the Nigerian Copyright ability to effectively administer enforcement and compliance of persons and entities with the provisions of the Act. In addition to further increasing the authority of the commission, the act made some notable changes towards the promotion of its objectives.

 NOTABLE CHANGES IN THE ACT 

I. PROTECTION FOR AUDIOVISUALWORKS 

Section 11 expressly provides for the recognition of audiovisual work as eligible for copyright protection whereby consent must be obtained before it can be reproduced, made a copy of any soundtrack thereof, distributed or the making of the work publicly, an adaptation or any act specific concerning the work of audiovisual. It further provides for remuneration for the 1 broadcasting of sound recordings and audiovisual work, to owners of such work . 

II. PROTECTION OFEXPRESSION OFFOLKLORE 

Section 74 of the act provides for the expression of folklore protected against reproduction, communication to the public, broadcasting, distribution, adaptation, translation, and other 2 transformations . 

III. PROVISION FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED PERSONS 

Section 24 provides access to published work for visually impaired or disabled persons without seeking permission from the copyright owner. It introduced a new exception to cater to the 3 production of specially adapted books for the visually impaired 

IV. NOTICE TO TAKE DOWN ILLEGALCONTENT
Section 54 provides the authority of copyright owners to send out notifications of infringement for the removal or deactivation of links to illegal content to the relevant service provider in writing which may be sent electronically attaching his identification of the work .

V. CRIMINALLIABILITY

Section 44-47 provides the liability of a person guilty of said act as provided in the act for the sum to the tune of 10,000 for every copy in contradiction to this section or a term of imprisonment of not less than 5 years or both .

It makes copyright infringement actionable in both civil and criminal proceedings. Civil action can result in reliefs such as reimbursement of value award of damages or both.

VI. BROADCASTING OF WORKS INCORPORATED IN AN AUDIO-VISUAL WORK

Section 16 provides the owners of broadcast work be entitled to remuneration from the broadcasting organization. The act also provides for the inclusion of digital content. This means that online content creators are protected from copyright infringements because online content including pictures, videos,
sound recordings, and other productions which are forms of digital copy can’t be used without obtaining consent from the content creators

VII. EXPLICITPROTECTION FOR PERFORMER’S RIGHTS

A performer shall have the exclusive right to control, in relation to his performance, the following acts -(a) fixation of his unfixed performance;(b) reproduction of a fixation of his performance, in any manner or form, if the -(i) original fixation, other than a fixation excluded by section 68 from the necessity for obtaining the consent of the performer, was itself made without his consent; or(ii) reproduction is made for purposes other than those in respect of which such performer gave his consent to the making of the original fixation or reproduction thereof; or(iii) original fixation was made by the provisions of the section.

Section 63 of the act provides that a performer shall have the exclusive legal rights to control, their performances; this includes the performing, recording, broadcasting, lending reproduction, and adaptation of their performance for fifty (50) years, from the end of the year their first performance(s) took place. A performer under the Act shall have an exclusive right to control the fixation of his unfixed performance, reproduction of a fixation of his performance in any manner or form, and broadcasting of his unfixed performance to the public. He or she also has exclusive rights to make available to the public, fixed performances in a way that members of the public may access them from a place or at a time.

Where several performers as a group take part in the same performance, consent is given by any person in charge of the group, and any payment for the use of the performance, subject to any contract between parties be divided equally among all the performers. The performer’s right applies to citizens and residents in Nigeria and performances that take place in Nigeria. It further extends to performances that take place in countries that are parties to
treaties or international agreements to which Nigeria is a party. The rights conferred to a performer under the act shall not be transmissible during the life of the said performer, but upon his death and such transfer shall be by testamentary disposition or by operation of law.

The Act introduced more acts that constitute an infringement of copyright. These include: 

1. The making of a copyrighted work available to the public via wire, wireless, or online means without the consent of the owner and for commercial purposes;
2. Refusing or omitting to pay upon demand, any royalty by a right of remuneration or agreement; and
3. Aiding or procuring another person to commit an act which constitutes an infringement under the Act

REFERENCES

• Section 11 of The Copyright Act 2022
• Section 74 of The Copyright Act 2022
• Section 24 of The Act
• Section 54 of The Act
• Ibid
• Section 63 of The Act
• Ibid