Legal Challenges of Intellectual Property and Copyright Protection of Online and Digital Data in Nigeria*

Abstract

When God created the framework of the earth with all its appurtenances, he gave man the freedom to re-design its contents as preferred. The world as it looks today is therefore the result of man’s recreation prowess. But while some bury themselves in the genuine labour of making the world a better place for mankind and the generation to come, some in lazy manners always lurk around the corner, waiting to reap where they did not sow by stealing the glory of another man’s work. The resultant solution to this is the emergence of copyright ownership rights and intellectual protection laws. The primary function of copyright law and the law of intellectual property is therefore to protect the fruits of a person’s work from annexation by another. This paper traced the origin of intellectual property and copyright, its development and the existing legal protection for intellectual property and copyright ownership in Nigeria vis-à-vis the various challenges still defying legal protection of online and digital materials by the existing legal framework. At the end of this paper, it was suggested that there is need to bring the Nigerian laws to speed in meeting the challenges of protecting online and digital materials.

Keywords: Intellectual Property, Online Data, Digital Data, Protection, Legal Challenges, Copyright.