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CMO to manage the economic exploitation of
their works.
How can your business reduce the risk
of infringement?
Litigation for copyright infringement can be an
expensive affair. Therefore, it would be wise to
implement policies that help avoid infringement.
The following are recommended:
•
Educate the staff employed by your
company so that they are made aware of
possible copyright implications of their work
and actions;
•
Obtain written licenses or assignments,
where needed, and ensure that staff are
familiar with the scope of such licenses or
assignments;
•
Mark any apparatus that could be used
to infringe copyright (such as photocopiers,
computers, CD and DVD burners) with a clear
notice that the apparatus must not be used to
infringe copyright;
•
Prohibit your staff explicitly from
downloading any copyright-protected material
from the Internet on office computers without
authorization; and
•
If your business makes frequent use of
products protected by technological protection
measures (TPMs), develop policies to ensure
that employees do not circumvent TPMs
without authorization from the copyright
owner, or do not exceed the scope of the
authorization.
Summary Checklist
•
Maximize your copyright protection.
Register your works with the national
copyright office, where such optional copyright
registration is available. Put a copyright
notice on your works. Employ digital rights
management tools to protect digital works.
•
Ascertain copyright ownership. Have
written agreements with all employees,
independent contractors and other persons
to address the question of ownership of
copyright in any works that are created for
your company.
•
Avoid infringement. If your product or
service includes any material that is not entirely
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original to your company, find out whether you
need permission to use such material and,
where needed, get prior permission.
•
As a rule of thumb, get the most out
of your copyright. License your rights, rather
than selling them. Grant specific and restrictive
licenses, so as to tailor each license to the
particular needs of the licensee.
7. ENFORCING COPYRIGHT
When is your copyright infringed?
Anyone who engages without the prior
permission of the copyright owner in an
activity, which the copyright owner alone is
authorized to do or prohibit, is said to have
violated the owner’s copyright, and is said to
have “infringed” copyright.
In Nigeria, the economic rights may be infringed
if someone, without the licence or authorization
of the copyright owner:
1)
Does or causes any other person to
do an act, the doing of which is controlled by
copyright;
2)
Imports or causes to be imported into
Nigeria any copy of a work which if it had been
made in Nigeria would be an infringing copy;
3)
Exhibits in public any article in respect
of
which copyright is infringed;
4)
Ditributes by way of trade, offer for sale,
hire or otherwise or for any purpose prejudicial
to the owner of the copyright, any article in
respect of which copyright is infringed;
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5)
Makes or has in his possession, plates,
master tapes, machines, equipment or
contrivances used for the purpose of making
infringed copies of the work;
6)
Permits place of public entertainment
or of business to be used for a performance in
the public of the work, where the performance
constitutes an infringement of the copyright
in the work, unless the person permitting
the place to be used is not aware, and had
no reasonable ground for suspecting that the
performance would be an infringement of the
copyright;
7)
Performs or causes to be performed
for the purposes of trade or business or as
supporting facility to a trade or business, any
work in which copyright subsists.
It is not a defence for a person to claim that he
did not know that he was infringing a copyright
protected work.
There may be copyright infringement, even if
only a part of a work is used. An infringement
will generally occur where a “substantial part”
– that is an important, essential or distinct
part – is used in one of the ways exclusively
reserved to the copyright owner. So, both the
quantity and quality matter. However, there
is no general rule on how much of a work may
be used without infringing copyright. The
question will be determined on a case-by-
case basis, depending on the actual facts and
circumstances of each case.
The moral rights may be infringed:
•
If your contribution, as author of the
work, is not recognized; or
•
If your work is subjected to derogatory
treatment or is modified in a way that would
be prejudicial to your honor or reputation.
One single act may violate the rights of many
right holders. For example, it is an infringement
of the right in the broadcast to sell tapes of
broadcast programs. Of course, this action
would also infringe the copyright of the
composer of the music and the record company,
which produced the original recording. Each