Section 52 Copyright Act

Section 52 Copyright Act 2022 is about Actions for circumvention of technological protection measures and rights management information. It is under Part VI (Anti-Piracy and other Measures) of the Act.

(1) A person whose right is violated under sections 50 or 51 of this Act may institute an action before a court of competent jurisdiction to seek redress for damages, accounts or injunction as are available to a plaintiff in any similar proceedings in respect of infringement of other proprietary rights.

(2) A court before which an action is brought under this section, may order that any device or product that is in the custody or control of the alleged violator, which the court has reasonable cause to believe was involved in the violation be impounded on such terms as it deems necessary.

(3) Any person who, in the course of business, makes or imports into Nigeria a technology or device for the circumvention of a technological protection measure, knowing that it is likely to be so used, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of at least N1,000,000 or to imprisonment for a term of at least five years or both

(4) Any person who, in the course of business, sells, distributes, lets for hire, offers or exposes for sale or hire, a technology or device for the circumvention of a technological protection measure, knowing that it is likely to be so used, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of at least N500,000 or imprisonment for a term of at least three years or both.

(5) Any person who, in the course of business, provides a service to another knowing that the service is to enable or assist that other person to circumvent a technological protection measure, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of at least N200,000 or imprisonment for a term of at least one year or both.

(6) Any person who, with the intention of infringing copyright in the work concerned —
(a) removes, erases or alters any rights management information which is attached to or incorporated in or appears with a work ; or
(b) sells or lets for hire or offers or exposes for sale or hire any work from which rights management information has been removed, erased or altered, shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine of not less than N200,000 or to imprisonment for a term of not less than one year or both.

(7) It shall be a defence, in a prosecution for an offence under subsection (6), for the accused person to prove that the removal, erasure or alteration of the rights management information concerned was reasonably incidental to any use of or dealing with the work concerned which did not amount to an infringement of any copyright in the work.