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Public
Enlightenment
The Commission was quick to determine that lack of awareness about
the law and administration of copyright law constituted a major
inhibition to the development of a sound copyright system in Nigeria
. In order to stem this unacceptable situation, the Commission at
various times embarked on public enlightenment activities to educate
users and owners of copyright works as well as the general public
on copyright issues through:
- Symposia, workshops,
seminars, annual copyright forum, copyright summit and free legal
counselling.
- Support
for the organization of “National Creativity Day”,
a day earmarked for our teaming creative minds to exchange ideas,
show case their creative works and extol creativity.
- Publication
of information materials for public use such as posters, leaflets
and textbooks.
- maintenance of
a specialized copyright library open to the general public.
- Encouraging
the teaching of intellectual property especially in law faculties
of Nigerian universities.
- Conducting
special copyright training for law enforcement agencies, namely,
the Nigerian Police Force, Nigerian Customs Service as well as
law court judges.
- Supporting
the establishment of copyright clubs in Nigerian secondary schools
under the aegis of the Commission’s “Schools and Youth
Project”.
Anti- Piracy
and Enforcement
Essentially, for any
creative work to come to fruition, the author/ right owner must
have invested time, energy and money in that work. The Commission’s
enforcement programmes are geared towards fighting piracy and giving
the right owners due returns on every creative investment. . .[more]
Research and Documentation
Part of the mandate of the Commission is to maintain an effective
databank of authors and their works and in a way to monitor the
copyright industry in order to safeguard the vital interests of
right owners for national growth. To meaningfully do this, requires
the documentation of existing works and periodic evaluation of relevant
aspect of the copyright system. Accordingly, the following research
oriented projects have been initiated by the Commission and are
on-going:
- Compilation of
National Works List.
- Documentation
of Nigerian Indigenous Folklore Resources.
- Documentation
of Ethno-musical works in the Music Libraries of Federal Radio
Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN).
- Survey on the
Contribution of Copyright Industries to Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) of Nigeria .
International
Regime
The
copyright works of authors from other parts of the world are protected
in Nigeria just as Nigerian works are in other countries by virtue
of international copyright related treaties to which Nigeria is signatory.
These treaties stipulate internationally acceptable minimum standards
for the domestic laws on copyright and related areas as well as encourage
the protection of rights of author(s) of member countries.
The copyright related conventions to which Nigeria is signatory include:
- Universal Copyright
Convention (UCC).
- International
Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of
Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations ( Rome Convention).
- Berne Convention
for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
( Berne Convention).
- Convention Establishing
the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO Convention).
- Agreement on Trade
Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS) within the Framework of GATT.
- WIPO Performances
and Phonograms Treaty.
- WIPO Copyright
Treaty.
Strategic Action
Against Piracy (STRAP)
Piracy has grown into a huge industry and continues to threaten the
survival of creativity, innovation and enterprise. Nine out of every
ten CDs, VCDs, DVDs, software, book and other copyright work is
pirated, accounting for a huge loss in income to right owners, revenue
to government and the economy. The Nigerian Copyright Commission
has introduced STRAP as the national anti-piracy campaign for effective
protection against piracy and all forms of intellectual property
theft. STRAP is conceived as the Commission’s main enforcement
platform to bring about a drastic reduction in the level of piracy
and other forms of copyright abuses. . . .[more] |
