Copyright Issues in Nigeria: Analysis of Nigerian Copyright Commission Cases Between the Years 2008 - 2018

Abstract

Nigeria Copyright Commission is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring adherence to the copyright law in Nigeria. However, it has been observed in the last decade that copyright right issue is still rampant in Nigeria. Therefore, this study analyzed cases that the Commission in involved in between years 2008 to 2018. The study adopted citation analysis and mixed method research. The study collected data from three selected law reports, which include Intellectual Property Law Reports, Nigerian Weekly Law Reports and Nigeria Law Intellectual Property Watch. It was found that Nigerian Law Intellectual Property Watch has the highest number of reports of cases involving Nigerian Copyright Commission while none was reported by Nigerian Weekly Law Reports. It was also found that most of the cases handled by the Commission were on copyright infringement. The study concludes that Nigerian Copyright Commission has been paying credible attention to issue that surrounds software infringement but there has been little attention paid to book piracy. Moreover, it was established that the poor attention given to book piracy may entrench the publication of pirated copy and would subsequently lead to poor library service provision at the long run.