Court Order NUC, Airtel to Pay N703m for Copyright Infringement
Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court, Abuja, on Wednesday ordered the National Universities Commission, NUC, and Zain Nigeria Ltd (now Airtel) to pay N703 million as damages to a media company, TV Xtra Production for copyright infringement.
Delivering judgment, Justice Ekwo, held that the actions of the defendants contravened the Copyright Act.
TV Xtra Production’s Chief Executive Office and General Editor, Arise News, Christian Ogodo, had designed and registered a quiz programme, titled: “University Challenge” with the National Copyrights Commission.
However, Ogodo, was surprised to see the programme being aired on televisions by NUC and Zain four weeks after he made the presentation to the NUC.
Zain Nigeria, in its defence, contended that TV Xtra was not the original owner of the programme, explaining that the idea was picked from a similar programme, “the British Universities Challenge.”
But the judge ruled that the defendants misunderstood the case of plaintiff who was seeking remedy for his work not in any other part of the world, but registered in Nigeria and which existed at the time it was aired in Nigeria.
He added that airing the programme on African Independent Television, AIT, and Nigeria Television Authourity, NTA, without the permission of the author violated Sections 2(a) (1), 6 (1) (a) (1) and 8 of the Copyrights Act.
“The law is that a work in Nigeria is the exclusive right of the owner to control the reproduction of the work in any material form and making adaptations of the work going by Section 6(1) (a) (1) and 8 of the Copyright Act.
“I find that the case of the plaintiff succeeds on the merit and make an order entering judgement on the terms of the claims,” Ekwo said.
