ABSTRACT
Every area of law is distinct, and so is Entertainment Law. In recent times, there has been a major spike in entertainment activities in Nigeria ranging from different industries which in turn has given Nigeria both local & international recognition around the world. In November 2022, Nigerian Singer, Divine Ikubor, popularly known as Rema broke new ground and got into the Guinness World Records, his song, ‘Calm Down’ became the first song to top the Middle East and North Africa music streaming chart.
The Entertainment industry in Nigeria is one of the fastest growing in the world and has contributed immensely to the economy of the country, its importance cannot be over empathized. In the second quarter of 2022, the arts, entertainment, and recreation sector accounted for 0.21 percent of Nigeria’s GDP. With a huge influx of daily transactions in the entertainment industry in the world today, the need for subsisting laws is highly sacrosanct to govern & safeguard the entertainment industry.
INTRODUCTION
According to Cambridge University, Entertainment can be said to include shows, films, television, orother performances or activities that entertain people, or a performance of this type. Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousands of years specifically to keep an audience’s attention.
Law on the other hand is said to have no clear definition that can be said to be universal in nature. According to Blackstone, Law in its most general and comprehensive sense, “is that rule of action which is prescribed by some superior and which the inferior is bound to obey”. Entertainment Law: a branch of Media law and the general body of Intellectual property law is the field of law dealing with the legal and business issues in the entertainment industry such as music, film, music theatre. It also involves the creative representation of artists & producers, the negotiation of contracts, and the protection of intellectual property rights.
It should be noted that entertainment law covers a wide spectrum of persons, materials, processes, and areas some of which includes intellectual property, law of contract, cooperate practice, finance & tax laws etc. Entertainment law serves not only the talent that performs in the entertainment industry but also the production aspects of creating entertainment content, as well as ensuring the sustainability of the industry.
Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; symbols, names, and images used in commerce. IP is protected in law by, for example,what they invent or create.
The nexus between Entertainment Law & Intellectual property is a symbiotic relationship, with each giving relevance to itself. The Entertainment industry in Nigeria is a huge and diverse market with a lot of production of artistic works, and content created daily for the consumption of the masses. However, the need to protect the works of entertainers is very sacrosanct. Intellectual Property acts as a shield and sword to entertainers over the creation, ownership, and control of their works. To be a successful player in the entertainment industry, requisite knowledge in the aforementioned areas is sacrosanct.
Therefore, the import of this article is to examine the synergy and importance of Intellectual property to Entertainment in Nigeria. This article shall also offer feasible suggestions for implementing IP in the Entertainment Industry.
CURRENT LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF ENTERTAINMENT IN NIGERIA.
There is no definite legal framework on Entertainment in Nigeria, however, there are other laws supplementary to the activities connected to entertainment and media, since virtually all the activities in the industry are intellectual property related.
In many countries, some laws deal with this area of law, countries such as the United States of America, Malaysia, and Brunei, which provide for licensing and regulation of entertainment and places of entertainment. Some of these legislations ancillary to the activities connected therewith give the force of law to the entertainment industry. Some of these legislations include The Copyright Act, The Trademarks Act , The Patent and Design Act, The Companies and Allied Matters Act , the various Income Tax Acts, and most importantly, the Constitution of The Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Copy Rights Act
The Nigerian Copyright Act helps in protecting one’s entertainment works that fall within the six categories that fall within works that can be protected by this Act. The first three include artistic works, literary works, and musical works. The Law also confers exclusive rights to owners of works12, rights which include production, performance, and adaptation to other forms.
The Entertainment industries have perhaps been the most obsessed with copyright protection. Often, at the beginning of movies or music videos, we see warnings like: “This film and soundtrack have been licensed under the copyright laws of Nigeria. No duplication, rental, or broadcast of the contents of this videotape, or Compact Disk, or Digital Video Disc should be done without the permission of the copyright owners. Pirates Beware!” Their insecurities are not unfounded. The prevalence of piracy of entertainment works has rendered authors who invested time and money; to reap little or no gain from such investment. Thankfully, the whole essence of copyright laws is that “a man should not be allowed to appropriate the results of another man’s sweat.”
The Trademark Act
The Trademark Act is synonymous in function with the Copyright Act. This statute regulates and protects a brand of identity, a trade mark is a sign that helps in distinguishing other goods and services from others. The Patent and Design Act deals with safeguarding the rights over scientific/technological from outright coping to knowledgeable and unknowledgeable incorporation of already patented work and even to the incorporation of such a product that is sufficiently like one. For example, a creative like “Mr. Macaroni” a skit maker, can trademark the “OOIN” which are distinctive features of his skit and content.
The Entertainment Industry resorts to a trademark in protecting the goodwill of their brand from exploitation from competitors. Trademarks have become money-making makers in the Entertainment Industry because two main sectors- music and film are the emerging big market that gives huge profits to the entertainment Industry. Entertainment company names, record label names, and more rarely performers’ legal names, can be protected under the Nigerian Trademark Act. Like other businesses, entertainment entities have an interest in preventing others from using names that are so similar to theirs as to confuse consumers as to exactly who is delivering certain products or services.
In Nigeria, the Trademark Act of 1967 is the law that regulates the registration of trademarks, while the Trademark, Patent, and Design Registry under the Commercial Department of the Ministry of Trade & Investment is the authority responsible for the registration of trademarks in Nigeria.
The Patent and Design Act14
A patent is a government authority or license conferring an exclusive right or title for a set period, especially the sole right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention in the country it is obtained without permission or consent during the lifespan of the patent. It is a right granted under the law to protect an invention that is novel or an improvement over some existing process.
The Entertainment industry is specifically aggrieved by this because novelists and scriptwriters often come up with crazy expectations. A patent expires after 20 years from the day of filling out the relevant patent application.
Company and Allied Matters Act
Before any Entertainment company can conduct business in Nigeria, such an entity is mandated to register the company under the Cooperate Affairs Commission (CAC) established as a parastatal saddled with the responsibilities of regulating companies in Nigeria.
The business activities of the entertainment industry are mostly governed by this Law. Artist in the entertainment industry is often signed under a record label, production, promotion, or management entities and these entities are usually companies incorporated and clothed with legal personality and are bound by the provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act ranging from capacity to form a company, filing of returns and other required compliance.
RELEVANT CASES AND DISPUTES
Judicial precedents being a popular source of law in common law jurisdictions such as Nigeria have aided and will no doubt continue to aid the development of Entertainment Law in Nigeria. A few recent cases regarding copyright infringement of works of entertainment are discussed below. Some of the cases are still pending in court, courtesy of our slow-paced judicial system.
INCORPORATED TRUSTEES OF ASSOCIATION OF HOTEL PROPRIETORS OF EDO STATE V. COPYRIGHT SOCIETY OF NIGERIA (COSON)
In 2014, the Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Hotel Proprietors of Edo State filed a Suit against COSON at the Benin Federal High Court. They asked the Court to determine several questions related to the powers of COSON to enforce the copyright of owners of musical works and sound recordings in hotels and similar establishments in Nigeria. On October 21, 2016, the Federal High Court in Benin City presided over by Justice A.M. Liman ruled in favor of COSON.
The Court emphasized that the police do not need warrants to arrest offenders or an order of the court to enter premises either alone or with representatives of COSON for offenses relating to copyright infringement. The court stated that the appointment of Copyright inspectors does not preclude the police from arresting and prosecuting copyright offenders.
LIBERTY WILLIAMS (A.K.A. PUPAYANNIS) V. MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED & ORS.
On October 12, 2016, Musician, Pupayannis (the Plaintiff) filed a Suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja against MTN Nigeria Communications Limited and others. The subject of the suit was the Copyright Infringement of his song “Love is Everything”. In his Statement of Claim, Plaintiff alleged that MTN has been collecting money for caller tunes for his song and had not compensated him for its use.
The Plaintiff indicated that although he had a relationship with a record company, he did not give copyright to his past works including ‘Love is Everything’, and that the sale or offer for a fee of the Plaintiff’s song to MTN subscribers or customers without his consent constituted copyright infringement. The Plaintiff asked the court to award the sum of N200,000,000 as general damages and N100,000,000 as aggravated and punitive damages.
TEMITOPE AKINYEMI V. THE SUN PUBLISHING LIMITED
In this Suit, the Daily Sun Newspaper (the Defendant) was accused of “illegally and criminally publishing” a photograph in the newspaper’s May 25, 2016, edition on its dating ‘Sun Girl’ page. Daily Sun allegedly published the photograph of Ms. Temitope Akinyemi (the Plaintiff), a student of Delta State Polytechnic with the name ‘Sadiyat’ and telephone number 09057312447.
On October 11, 2016, Plaintiff filed a suit against the Defendants at the Federal High Court, Warri, seeking N500 million as damages for copyright infringement and illegal publication. On October 27, the Defendants filed their Statement of Defense claiming that it legally obtained the photograph and that the Plaintiff was not the owner of the copyright in the photograph. The case is currently pending before the Federal High Court.
CONCLUSION
Entertainment law as has been previously stated is inextricably linked with intellectual property law. This is because all works of entertainment are the intellectual properties of their creators. In Nigeria, there is a dearth of case law as regards entertainment. This dearth coupled with the lack of a specialized Entertainment law enactment has left lawyers with no other option but to resort to intellectual property laws, in addressing the legal obligations of their clients in the entertainment industry.
There is a need for law reforms to accommodate and handle the different areas of the entertainment industry. Beyond law reform, however, institutional support to combat the various challenges facing the entertainment industry need to be put in place through training and other forms of capacity building in the industry.
The study of intellectual property law alone in our universities is not enough in preparing lawyers to delve into entertainment law and practice. As earlier pointed out, intellectual property law is just an aspect of entertainment law. We recommend that the intellectual property law department should be subsumed under the entertainment law department and its study well systematized.
There are a few decided cases relating to the entertainment industry in Nigeria. Thus, the role of the judiciary is very important; a deeper appreciation and expeditious dispensation of cases relating to the industry will go a long way in making the industry one of a kind.
