Last week, we examined the limits of copyright and found that while the owner of copyright has a wide range of exclusive rights which he does not share with anybody, his rights are not limitless. For instance, we learnt that in many cases, copyright does not last forever.
For instance, copyright in a sound recording expires fifty years after the end of the year in which the recording was made. It must be noted that it is irrelevant when a sound recording is published, the term of copyright is calculated from the time the recording was made.
In the music industry, it is traditional to release some recordings of popular artistes long after they have been made. The effect of this is that the effective term of copyright is shortened. Suppose Ivory Music Ltd discovers a previously unreleased recording of the late great Ozzidi King, Sonny Okosun which recording was made by Ivory's predecessor-in-title, EMI. The copyright in the recording would have started 'ticking' when the recording was made, before the death of Okosun. Therefore, the period within which the company can exclusively exploit the recording will become severely limited.
In fact, the copyright in most of the great sound recordings made by EMI in the early seventies, immediately after the Nigerian civil war, such as the recordings of the Strangers of Owerri, the Wings, Funkees and Apostles of Aba, Joni Haastrup's Monomono, Peacocks International Band and the early recordings of Fela Ransome Kuti should all be falling into the public domain soon, because they would all be fifty years old.
Similarly, the different owners of copyright in the great sound recordings of Ebenezer Obey's Board Members, Prince Nico Mbarga's Sweet Mother, Victor Uwaifo's Joromi, the early hits of Oriental Brothers, etc., should be on the look out as the term of copyright in these recordings come to an end.
Unlike a cinematograph film or photograph, it is indeed possible for the copyright in a sound recording to expire before the work is published.
It is not clear what the philosophical underpinning is to this dichotomy in the law between the term of copyright in a sound recording and the term of copyright in a cinematograph film or photograph.
The term of copyright in a sound recording must be distinguished from the term of copyright in the musical or literary work embedded in the recording. The copyright in the sound recording may have expired while the copyright in the musical work still subsists. The practical consequence is that shortly, it will be possible for a radio station in Nigeria to broadcast any of the early 1970 sound recordings of EMI without obtaining a licence. The station may however still need to get the licence of the owners of the copyright in the songs embedded in the recordings. If the station does not, it will be liable for copyright infringement.
The term of copyright in a broadcast appears to be straight forward. Copyright in a broadcast expires fifty years after the end of the year in which the broadcast first took place.
Beyond the limitations set out by the different terms of copyright in different works, there are nineteen exceptions to the rights of the owner which are provided in the second schedule to the Copyright Act. What this means is that any of the nineteen acts listed in the second schedule may be done without the authorization or licence of the copyright owner. The doing of such acts will therefore not constitute copyright infringement.
It is important to examine the exceptions carefully, especially "fair dealing", to fully understand to what extent they can truly immunize a user from the liability of copyright infringement. Next time, we shall attempt such examination.
See you next week.
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