Some Practical and ICT-Enabled Options for Copyright Protection

The creation of copyright works these days has gone beyond writing a book or capturing movie scenes, delivering it to a publisher or filmmaker to publish and then straight to the stores for sale to the public.

Millions of works of copyright are created and published daily online and improved technology has provided avenues such as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, and numerous other platforms for the creation, expression and communication of works of copyright to the public. All these call for a new dimension for adequate protection of copyright. The following are suggested:

1. Make Your Work Protectable by Law

We have mentioned in our article on What to Do to Make Your Work Enjoy Copyright in Nigeria that copyright protection in Nigeria needs no registration formality for protection but practical compliance of the work with the prescriptions of the law. Those prescriptions are the conditions for eligibility explained in the article. Click here if you want to read the article. All the conditions must be present. This is the starting point to give the copyright owner a shield and sword in case of any exigency.

2. Use Access Control Software to Protect Online Content

Where the work is published online, several application software options are available for use e.g. activating the options prohibiting copying, printing or downloading; use of passwords or paywall to control access to certain contents; creating copyright watermarks behind texts; adding a copyright notice to content; include copyright clause to the Terms of Use of the website, etc.

 3. Publish the Work Via Secure Platform

Where the work is fit for such, the option of publishing the work through platforms that protect the work from copyright infringement and as well protect the economic right and benefits that the work generates could be used. Movies on Netflix, E-Books on Amazon, Google Play Store, etc. are popular examples.

4. Take Action Where Necessary

Where you discover your work has been infringed upon, you must take action by making immediate consultation with an IP lawyer for appropriate advice. If it is online content, the following steps are recommended by WIPO:

(a.) Make screenshots or prints of all relevant pages that the infringing copies are displayed and print the source code of the infringing website.

(b.) Be sure you can prove that your website content is original and that you have owned it for a longer period of time than the infringing website.

(c.) Send a cease and desist letter to the owner of the infringing website asking it to take your material off their website.

(d.) If the owner fails to heed the Written Warning, then you may have to:

(i.) Send a notice of infringement to all search engines where the infringing site is listed and demand that they remove any link to the infringing site. Google allows you to report any case of website copyright infringement. The process is by submitting a legal removal request via Google’s website. Google will investigate and then decide the appropriate sanction – whether to block, remove or restrict access to the infringing website pages.

(ii.) Send a notice of infringement to the website hosting company or internet service provider (ISP) and demand that the infringing site be removed from the server where it is hosted.

(e.) Where all the above steps have been exploited without the expected result, a lawsuit is the last resort. Remedies available in such a lawsuit are – an order for removal of the infringing content; an injunction stopping further infringement and damages for the infringement.

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