Copyright (Amendment) Decree
No 42 1999
Laws of the Federation of Nigeria
10th May 1999

The Federal Military Government hereby decrees as follows:-

Amendment of 1988 No. 47.Cap. 68 LFN. 1992 No. 98

1.

The Copyright Decree (in this Decree referred to as "the principal Decree") as amended, is hereby
further amended as set out in this Decree.

2.

Wherever it occurs in the principal Decree as amended, other than in section 37(2)(a) and in paragraph
3(a) In the third Schedule to the Decree, for the word "Council" there is substituted, the word
"Commission".

Insertion of section 4A
3.

Immediately after. section 4 of the principal Decree there is inserted a new section 4A as follows -

"Copyright by reference to international agreements.
4A. (1)

Copyright shall be conferred by this section on every work if -

(a)

on the date of its first publication at least one of the authors is
(i)

a citizen of or domiciled in, or

(ii)

a body corporate established by or under the laws of,
a Country that is, a party to an obligation in a treaty or other international agreement to
which Nigeria is a party;

(b)

the work is first published (i)

(2)

in a country which is a party to an obligation in a treaty or other international agreement to
which Nigeria is party,

(ii)

by the United Nations or any of its specilised agencies, or

(iii)

by the Organisation of African Unity, or

(iv)

by the Economic Community of West Africa.

Where the question arises as to whether a country is a party to an obligation in a treaty or other
international agreement to which Nigeria is also a party, a certificate from the Commission to that
effect shall be conclusive proof of that fact".

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