A Summary of my presentation
At the Music Promotion Hub
Intellectual Property and Musicians Copyright
In house talk time
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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Intellectual property are the tangible possessions that are the result of the exercise of a persons intellect
They are intangible that is they cannot be physically felt but can be physically perceive
It’s separate the tangible from the intangible and allows the creative of people to enjoy special privileges and entitlement for thr works while others enjoy the physical possession of those works …. Examples include patent, copyright, physical indications, trademark, industrial indications, geographical indication etc
Our focus is on copyright which deals with our line of works
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COPYRIGHT
Copyright is a legal term used to describe the rights that creatives have over their literary, musical or artistic works. It is a type of intellectual property that confers exclusive right on the copyright owner and excludes any other person from reproducing or exploiting the work without the authorization of the copyright owner.
👉🏾TYPES OF RIGHTS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT
We have two rights protected
1- economical right
2- moral rights
The economical rights are they rights to make income, generate revenue and profit from your intellectual knowledge and creations
While Moral rights are the credit given to the owners of works and the recognition received for the creator of such intellectual work
👉Scope of copyright
According to the Nigerian Copyright Act (the “NCA”), works eligible for copyright are:
(a) literary works,
(b) musical works,
(c) artistic works,
(d) cinematograph works,
(e) sound recording,
and (f) broadcasts.
For copyright to be conferred on any of these works, the author must be a qualified person,
i.e., an individual who is a citizen of, or is domiciled in Nigeria;
or a body corporate incorporated by or under the laws of Nigeria.
Viewed from this perspective, it becomes immediately obvious that not all expressions can be protected by copyright.
Although not expressly stated in the Act, the following works are generally also not eligible for protection:
official government works (legislations and official documents),
ideas,
names,
slogan,
or short phrases,
and facts.
Our focus being on the music works and sound recording
RIGHTS ACCRUABLE TO OWNERS OF MUSICAL COMPOSITION
A copyright owner in a musical work has an exclusive right over acts stated in Section 6 (1) (a) of the NCA subject to the exceptions specified in the Second Schedule to the NCA.
These acts include the
👉🏾reproduction of the work,
👉🏾publication of the work,
👉🏾performance of the work in public,
👉🏾public display of the work,
👉🏾preparation of derivative works,
👉🏾commercial distribution of the work by way of rental, lease, hire, loan or similar arrangement, communication of the work to the public by a loudspeaker or any other similar device, translation/adaptation of the work,
👉🏾 making a cinematograph film or a record in respect of the work.
Thus, a composer of a music is given a right to record the music, sell or distribute copies of the music in different formats, stream the music, perform the music in public, make new work from the original work such as sampling one’s music in order to create a new song, amongst others. Copyright in musical work also extends to preventing others from doing any of these acts without one’s authorization.
A copyright owner in a sound recording has an exclusive right over acts stated in Section 7 (1) of the NCA.
👉🏾These include direct or indirect reproduction of the work,
👉🏾control of broadcasting or communication, recording of the whole or substantial part of the recording either in its original form or in any other form recognizably derived from the original, commercial distribution to the public for commercial purposes copies of the work by way of rental, lease, hire, loan or similar arrangement.
NOTE:::::::
It is pertinent to state that copyright owners of sound recordings do not enjoy as much control as copyright owners of musical works do. This is because originality is not a requirement for the protection of sound recordings as is required for musical works.
It is apt to mention that copyright need not be registered in order to be protected in Nigeria as such is protected automatically from the moment the work is fixed.
Some others means of protection your works is through
1 – through digital music stores
2 – when under a label
3- Registering with the NCC branch of VOLUNTARY COPYRIGHT SCHEME (search google to ready more about them )
By: Olajengbesi OS
A Law Student (Entertainment and Corporate law)
Media consultant and blogger
