On the 17th day of March 2023, the President of Nigeria assented to the Act passed by the Nigerian National Assembly in 2022 repealing the Copyright Act of 2004 and enacting the Copyright Act of 2022. The new Act represents a significant overhaul of the previous legislation, establishing a comprehensive legal framework for copyright protection in Nigeria. The Act brings several important changes, it strengthens the rights of authors, aligns Nigeria with relevant international copyright treaties and conventions, and provides appropriate limitations and exceptions to guarantee access to creative works.

The new Act also empowers the Commission with more authority and criminalizes the unauthorized broadcasting of digital or online works without the consent of the copyright holder. Additionally, it introduces provisions to protect technological measures employed for safeguarding copyrighted works. The new Act also bestows copyright owners with the exclusive right to communicate their works to the public. This provision enables them to exercise control over the online distribution and accessibility of their works. The following are some of the key provisions that were newly introduced and/or revised: …