Section 108 Copyright Act

Section 108 Copyright Act 2022 is about Interpretation. It is under Part XII (Miscellaneous Provisions) of the Act.

(1) In this Act —
“adaptation” means the modification of a pre-existing work from one type of work to another or altering a work within the same type to make it suitable for different conditions of exploitation and may also involve altering the composition of the work ;

“artistic work” includes, irrespective of artistic quality, any of the following works or similar works —
(a) paintings, drawings, etchings, lithographs, woodcuts, engravings and prints ;
(b) maps, plans and diagrams ;
(c) works of sculpture ;
(d) photographs not comprised in an audiovisual work ;
(e) works of architecture in the form of building models ; and
(f ) works of artistic craftsmanship, including pictorial woven tissues and articles of applied handicraft ;

“audiovisual work” means the aggregate of a series of related visual images with or without sound, which is capable of being shown as a moving picture by means of a mechanical, electronic or other device and irrespective of the nature of the material on which the visual images and sounds are carried and includes the sound track, but does not include a broadcast ;

“author” in the case of —
(a) audiovisual work means the person by whom the arrangements for the making of the audiovisual work were made, unless the parties to the making of the audiovisual work, provide otherwise by contract between themselves ;
(b) collective work, means the person responsible for the selection and arrangement of the collection ;

(c) a photographic work, means the person who took the photograph;
(d) sound recording, means the person by whom the arrangements for the making of the sound recording were made ; and
(e) a broadcast transmitted from within any country, means the person by whom the arrangements for the making or the transmission from within that country were undertaken ;

“broadcast” means the transmission by wireless means of sounds or images or both, in such a manner as to cause such images or sounds to be received by the public ;
“broadcasting organisation” means any authority established under any law in Nigeria or elsewhere providing broadcasting services for public reception ;

“building” includes any fixed structure or a part of a building or fixed structure ;
“choreographic work” means a composition of movements for dancing or any other patterned succession of gestures mostly created to accompanying music ;
“collective work” means a collection of literary or artistic works, which by reason of the selection and arrangement of their contents, constitute intellectual creations and as such protected without prejudice to the copyright in each of the works forming part of such collection ;

“communication to the public” means making a work or a performance available to the public by wire or wireless means in such a way that members of the public may access the work or performance from a place and at a time individually chosen by them ;

“computer programme” means a set of statements or instructions, whatever may be the mode or form of their expression, to be used directly or indirectly in a computer in order to bring about a certain result ;
“copy” means a reproduction in any form including a digital copy ;
“copyright” means copyright under this Act ;
“court” means the Federal High Court ;

“exclusive licence” means a licence signed by or on behalf of a copyright owner, authorising the licensee to the exclusion of all other persons (including the person granting the licence), to exercise any right which would otherwise be exercisable exclusively by the copyright owner ;
“Government” includes Federal, State and Local Government ;
“licence” means a lawfully granted licence permitting the doing of an act controlled by this Act ;
“literary work” includes, irrespective of literary quality, any of the following works or similar works —
(a) novels, stories and poetical works ;

(b) plays, stage directions, audiovisual work scenarios and broadcasting scripts ;
(c) choreographic works ;
(d) computer programmes;
(e) textbooks, treatises, histories, biographies, essays and articles ;
(f ) encyclopaedias, dictionaries, directories and anthologies ;
(g) letters, reports and memoranda ;

(h) lectures, addresses and sermons ;
(i) law reports, excluding decisions of courts ; and
(j) written tables and compilations, including table or compilation of data stored or embodied in a computer or any medium ;
“Minister” means the Minister charged with the responsibility for copyright matters ;
“musical work” means musical composition, irrespective of musical quality ;
“re-broadcast” means a simultaneous or subsequent broadcast by one broadcasting organisation of the broadcast of another broadcasting organisation ;
“reproduction” means the making of one or more copies of a literary, musical or artistic work, audiovisual work or sound recording ;
“service provider” means a provider of online services or network access, including operators of such facilities, and any entity offering the transmission, routing, or providing of connections for digital online
communications, between or among points specified by a user, of material of the user’s choosing, without modification to the content of the material as sent or received ;

“sound recording” means the fixation of a sequence of sound capable of being perceived aurally and of being reproduced but does not include a sound track, accompanying or incorporated in an audiovisual work ;
“work” includes translations, adaptations, new versions or arrangements of pre-existing works, and anthologies or collection of works which by reason of the selection and arrangement of their content, present an original character ; and

“work of joint authorship” means a work produced by the collaboration of two or more authors in which the contributions of the authors are merged into inseparable or interdependent part of a whole.

(2) The following provisions shall apply with respect to publication, that is to say —
(a) a work shall be deemed to have been published if copies of it have been made available in a manner sufficient to render the work accessible to the public, including by making the work available to the public by wire or wireless means in such a way that members of the public may access it from a place and at a time individually chosen by them ;

(b) where in the first instance, a part only of a work is published, that part shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as a separate work ; and
(c) a publication in any country shall not be treated as being other than the first publication by reason only of an earlier publication elsewhere if the two publications took place within a period of not more than 30 days.