ABSTRACT
At the centre of copyright and protection of creative works is the issue of the work being original, otherwise referred to the concept of originality. Though originality is stipulated as a major condition for the subsistence of copyright under the Nigerian Copyright Act, its import and scope was not defined by the Act thereby creating some sort of ambiguity within the context of the said Act. Using the doctrinal methodology with a comparative approach, this paper examined the import and scope of originality in copyright law. To be effective, the paper briefly highlights the literal connotation of the term before focusing on the legal perspectives to the concept. Specifically, this paper analyzed the position under the common law vis-à-vis the civil law and European Union approaches. This paper found that the prevalent conception of the term ‘originality’ under the common law approach is quite adequate for the purposes of determining whether a creative output is copyrightable. However, in the application of the common law conception to factual exigencies, it may be necessary to have theoretical developments of the concept in civil law jurisdictions as well as under international law in perspective so as to make the law ever-responsive to changing situations.
Azoro, Chukwubuikem and Agulefo, Queen O, ‘Original’ under the Law of Copyright Is Distinct from the Ordinary Meaning of ‘Original’: A Discourse (November 20, 2021). International Journal of Law, volume 7, issue 6, 2021, pp 29-36.
First posted 2021-12-04 10:40:38
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