Last week, I had written about a friend who worked as a Human Resource Personnel in a publishing company. I stated the general rule and in this piece I will address the position of the law as regards ownership of copyright in the print media.
Section 10 (3) of the Nigerian Copyright Act states that where a literary, artistic or musical work is created by an employee or apprentice during the pendency of a contract of service or apprenticeship in a newspaper, magazine or similar periodical, in the absence of an agreement between the parties, the copyright in the work shall belong to the owner of the newspaper, magazine or similar periodical as it relates to the publication in that newspaper, magazine or similar periodical or reproduction but in all other aspects, shall belong to the author.
The first point to note is that this subsection still acknowledges that the author owns the work itself but with limitations. The author/employee does not own copyright as it relates to the work being published in any newspaper or magazine or its reproduction for the purpose of being published.
It is pertinent to note that a company is not a human being. Hence, can only own economic rights to a copyrighted work. The employee/author will forever own the moral rights to the copyrighted work. This is the reason one will always see the name of a author beneath every work published in a newspaper or magazine.
Upon reading this, I know you may want to ask the question below;
Does the owner of a newspaper or magazine own the copyright in a work created by a freelance writer or guest writer or a non-paid columnist?
No, because the relationship is not that of contract of service or apprenticeship.
Always ensure that a contract of employment contains a detailed information on ownership of copyright.
Boluwatife Sanya
LL.B, B.L, Copyright (Harvard), ACIArb (U.K), MIP (WIPO, ARIPO, A.U)
Boluwatife is the Managing Partner of Paddle Solicitors. Paddle Solicitors is a full-service litigation, commercial and dispute resolution law office.
Email: boluwatifesanya1@gmail.com
Hotline: +2348147439799