Having discussed the protection afforded by copyright and the steps involved in registering copyright in the first three parts, we shall now look at the exceptions to copyright protection provided under the Copyright Act.

EXCEPTIONS TO COPYRIGHT PROTECTION

It is important to note that to every general rule there is an exception, the Copyright Act has stipulated circumstances where someone may use or appropriate another person’s intellectual property. Intellectual Property Lawyers in Nigeria from A.A. Tejuoso & Co. would probably your favourite choice when it comes to resolving copyright protection related issues.

Listed below are some of such circumstances as stipulated by the relevant provisions of the Nigerian Copyright Act 2004.

1. Fair dealing for purposes of research, private use, criticism or review or the reporting of current events, subject to the condition that, if the use is public, it shall be accompanied by an acknowledgment of the title of the work and its authorship except where the work is incidentally included in a broadcast;
2. The inclusion in a film or a broadcast of an artistic work situated in a place where it can be viewed by the public;
3. The reproduction and distribution of copies of any artistic work permanently situated in a place where it can be viewed by the public;
4. The incidental inclusion of an artistic work in a film or broadcast;
5. The inclusion in a collection of literary or musical work which includes not more than two excerpts from the work, if the collection bears a statement that it is designed for educational use and includes an acknowledgment of the title and authorship of the work;
6. The broadcasting of work if the broadcast is approved by the broadcasting authority as an educational broadcast;
7. Any use made of a work in an approved educational institution for the educational purposes of that institution, subject to the condition that, if a reproduction is made for any such purpose it shall be destroyed before the end of the prescribed period, or if there is no prescribed period before the end of the period of twelve months after it was made:
8. The making of a sound recording of a literary or musical work, and the reproduction of such a sound recording by the maker or under licence from him, where the copies thereof are intended for retail sale in Nigeria and the work has already been previously recorded under licence from the owner of the relevant part of the copyright whether in Nigeria or abroad, subject to such conditions and to the payment of such compensation as may be prescribed;

You can also read: The procedure of Patent Infringement in Nigeria

9. The reading or recitation in public or in a broadcast by any person of any reasonable extract from a published literary work if accompanied by sufficient acknowledgment provided that such reading or recitation is not for a commercial purpose;
10. Any use made of a work by or under the direction or control of the Government, or by such public libraries, non-commercial documentation centers, and scientific or other institutions as may be prescribed, where the use is in the public interest, no revenue is derived therefrom and no admission fee is charged for the communication, if any, to the public of the work so used;
11. The reproduction of a work by or under the direction or control of a broadcasting authority where the reproduction or any copies thereof are intended exclusively for a lawful broadcast and are destroyed before the end of the period of six months immediately following the making of the reproduction or such longer period as may be agreed between the broadcasting authority and the owner of the relevant part of the copyright in the work.
12. The broadcasting of work already lawfully made accessible to the public and subject (without prejudice to the other provisions of this Schedule) to the condition that the owner of the broadcasting rights in the work shall receive a fair compensation determined, in the absence of agreement, by the court;
13. News of the day publicly broadcast or publicly communicated by any other means;
14. The communication to the public of a work, in a place where no admission fee is charged in respect of the communication, by any club whose aim is not profit-making;
15. The making of not more than three copies of a book (including a pamphlet, sheet or music, map, chart or plan) by or under the direction of the person in charge of a public library for the use of the library if such a book is not available for sale in Nigeria;
16. The reproduction for research or private study of an unpublished literary or musical work kept in a library, museum or other institutions to which the public has access;
17. Reproduction of published work in braille for the exclusive use of the blind, and sound recordings made by institutions or other establishments approved by the government for the promotion of the welfare of other disabled persons for the exclusive use of such blind or disabled person.

Hire an Intellectual Properties Attorney in Nigeria to get rid of the issues effectively under the copyright act.