45
there may be several copyrights in one product,
and these rights may have different owners,
and with different periods of protection. For
example, a book may contain text and images
that are protected by several and separate
copyrights, each expiring at a different date.
When can you use a work under a
limitation or exception to copyright or
under the concept of “fair dealing”?
The Copyright Act includes a number of
limitations and exceptions, which limit the scope
of copyright protection, and which allow either
free use of works under certain circumstances,
or use without permission by way of fair dealing.
The exceptions and limitations include the use
of a quotation from a published work (that
is, to use short excerpts in an independently
created work), some copying for private and
personal use (e.g., for research and study
purposes), some reproduction in libraries and
archives (e.g., of works out of print, where the
copies are too fragile to be lent to the general
public), reproduction of excerpts of works by
teachers for use by the students in a class, or
the making of special copies for use by visually
handicapped persons.
The limitations and exceptions on fair dealing
are described exhaustively in the Copyright
Act, which should be consulted for guidance.
Otherwise, you should seek expert advice.
What is a levy system for private
copying?
Individuals copy large amounts of copyright
material for their own personal, non commercial
use. Such copying creates a profitable market
for the manufacturers and importers of
recording equipment and media. However,
private copying cannot by its very nature be
managed by contract: private copies are made
spontaneously by people in the privacy of their
own homes. Therefore, in some countries,
copying for private use is simply permitted
under an exception; no prior permission needs
to be sought. But in exchange, a number of
such countries have set up a payment system
of levies to reimburse artists, writers and
musicians for such duplication of their works.
46
A levy system may be composed of two
elements:
•
Equipment and media levy: a small
copyright fee is added to the price of all sorts
of recording equipment, ranging from copying
and fax machines to CD and DVD burners,
video cassette recorders and scanners. Some
countries also provide for a levy on blank
recording media, such as photocopying paper,
blank tapes or CD-Rs or flash cards.
•
Operator levy: a “user fee” is paid
by schools, colleges, government and
research institutions, universities, libraries
and enterprises making a large volume of
photocopies.
Levies are usually collected by a collective
management organization from manufacturers,
importers, operators or users, and then
distributed to the relevant right owners.
In Nigeria, individuals may copy copyright
material for their private, non commercial use
without seeking prior permission from copyright
owners. However, the Copyright Act provides
for the existence of a system of the payment
of levies on any material used or capable of
being used to infringe copyright in a work. This
levy will be paid into the fund of the Nigerian
Copyright Commission to be distributed to
copyright owners through collective societies.
Can you use works protected by
technological protection measures
(TPMs)?
Businesses need to use care when making
commercial uses of works protected by TPMs
if this would require circumventing the TPM, an
action that is now prohibited by law in many
countries. Circumvention of a TPM would occur,
for instance, if you hack into someone’s digital
rights management system in order to use
the protected content without authorization,
or if you decrypt a copyright work without
authorization. Circumvention of TPMs is not
directly prohibited in Nigeria; however, the
regular rules of copyright infringement still
apply.
47
How can you get authorization to use
protected works over which rights are
owned by others?
There are two primary ways to go about
obtaining permission to use the copyright or
neighbouring rights-protected work: using the
services of a CMO, or contacting the copyright
or neighbouring rights owner directly if contact
details are available.
The best way is probably to first see if the
work is registered in the repertoire of the
relevant CMO, which considerably simplifies the
process of obtaining licenses. CMOs generally
offer different types of licenses, for different
purposes and uses. Some CMOs also offer
digital licenses.
If copyright or neighbouring rights in the work
is/are not managed by any CMO, you will have
to contact the copyright or neighbouring rights
owner directly or his/her agent. The person
named in the copyright notice is probably the
person who was the initial copyright owner,
but over a period of time, the economic
rights of copyright or neighbouring rights may
have been transferred to another person.
By searching the databank of the Nigerian
Copyright Commission you may be able to
identify the current copyright or neighbouring
rights owner. In case of written or musical
works, you may contact the work’s publisher
or the record producer, who often owns the
right to reproduce the material.
As there might be several “layers” of rights,
there may be several different right owners
from each of whom licenses are required. For
example, there may be a music publisher for
the composition, a recording company for
the recording of music, and often also the
performers.
You need authorization from the copyright
owner whose works you want to use. Authors
often transfer their rights to a publisher or a
Dostları ilə paylaş: |