Copyright holders go to great lengths to protect their intellectual property rights. But a new area in law known as creative commons licensing is advocating making knowledge available to all without legal constraints. The Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) held a roundtable on the subject.
The internet has made information readily available. However, not all of it is free. There are risks of copyright infringements in the use of some of the information on the web.
In some jurisdictions, including Nigeria, copyright laws tend to grant automatic protection to intellectual works.
There is need for delimitation and definition of such rights by licence or contract, legal experts have said.
The predominant model of licensing is referred to as “All Rights Reserved”, which, by default, reserves all rights to the copyright owner.
This is irrespective of whether the owner actually requires such protection or derives any benefit from it.
A novel licensing model, known as creative commons, is being developed to provide different packages for owners to licence their work in a manner that best represents their diverse interests by determining how they want their work to be used.
The model was the subject of a roundtable organised by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) in Lagos, with the theme: Creative Commons Licensing in the Digital Environment.
The event was organised in NIALS’ capacity as the ‘public lead’ of the Creative Commons Nigeria.
Speakers included a creative commons licensing experts Ayo Kusamotu and Kayode Yussuf; Research Fellow at NIALS Helen Chuma-Okoro, a law lecturer at University of Lagos (UNILAG) Edefe Ojomo and a lecturer in Biological sciences, Covenant University Dr Conrad Omonhinmin.
NIALS Director-General Prof Epiphany Azinge (SAN) said creative commons deploys tools on the internet and flexible licence that allow owners to restrict use of their work only to the extent that it affects their interests based on copyright law.
According to him, creative commons has emerged as a way of synchronising the use of copyright as a mechanism for regulating application of creative works and protecting owners’ rights.
“It addresses disparities in the law in its present form created by developments in digital technology which do not favour a one-size fits all licensing model, as imposed by the default all-rights-reserved model of licencing rights over copyrightable works,” he said.
Azinge said the benefits of creative commons licensing is not well-known or articulated in Nigeria despite the strong need for it, not only in the educational sector, but in the creative sector.
Ojomo said creative commons licensing is evident in Open Education Resources (OER), where teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, which are in public domain or have been released under an open licence, permits no-cost access, use, adaptation or distribution by others, with no restrictions.
Dean of law, Babcock University, Prof Bankole Sodipo, said developing countries especially need access to the free materials available through creative commons licensing.
He called for synergy between intellectual property rights holders and regulators in Nigeria to improve knowledge access.
Sodipo said: “The idea of creative commons is that copyright is not just to encourage creativity. Creativity is supposed to ensure that there are sufficient materials, and that people should have access to them. For developing countries, some of these materials are expensive to access.
“So, the creative commons is to encourage open licence, easier access, and encourage people to make materials available in the internet for the rest of the world to access.
“In effect, the practice where people say: ‘I own copyright, you cannot copy’ is being discouraged and a new culture is being evolved, where people will be able to say: ‘You can take this material to this extent’, so that there will be growth. That’s the idea behind this.”
On the need for collaboration among stakeholders, the law teacher said: “Generally, in this country, there has not been sufficient synergy between those regulating copyright, such as the Nigerian Copyrights Commission, the Registry of Trademarks, Patents and Designs and the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP). They need to talk more.
“There’s not sufficient synergy and talk between the rights holders, and also between those who advice and those who consult for them.
“That’s why the intellectual property spectrum in Nigeria is not moving or at the level it’s supposed to be.
“I commend the effort of NIALS, because we need to meet more often, and discuss, share ideas, and see that if we work together, there are open skies, and there is enough room for all of us in the sky.”
NOTAP Director-General Dr Umar Bindir believes creative commons licensing will discourage intellectual property hoarding.
He said: “Certainly this is a new area for Nigeria in terms of the issues being discussed. The creative commons will go a long way in encouraging people to share their skills, to share their knowledge, to be partners and to create networks.
“Most importantly, and relevant to the work of NOTAB, this platform will help to spur innovation in Nigeria.
“With more information, well researched, well published, we believe young people, students, teachers will be able to have very easy access to relevant materials to be able to take them to the next level, so that their creativity will improve, their inventive and innovative capacities will improve, and thereby fulfilling some of our mandates.”
On challenges he foresees in the exploitation of creative commons, Bindir said they include the lack of capacity to harness the potentials.
His words: “Before talking of challenges, the key advantage that you can see of this is actually in education.
“Our country is very diverse, with over 400,000 primary and secondary schools scattered all over the place, 70 per cent of who are in the villages, in the rural areas. You can see the potential of this to make sure that information is available.
“So, the challenges follow the potential. Are we able to provide the infrastructure? Can we provide the kind of human capital and guidance that are required?
“Are we mature enough to know what kinds of models to use without infringement? Again, we have a culture of territories and islands where you hold things, thinking you’re the only one and you must get the financial benefits.
“Creative commons will help to gradually help to decode that so that we become more sharing.”
