Librería Samer Atenea
Kálamo Books
Librería Elías (Asturias)
Librería Kolima (Madrid)
Librería Proteo (Málaga)
Copyright protection exists to reward creativity, but it is not absolute. Nigerian copyright law, like most common law jurisdictions, recognises that certain uses of protected works should escape liability in the interest of public good - education, criticism, research, and the free flow of information. This is where the doctrines of 'fair dealing' and 'fair use' come in. Nigeria’s copyright regime, governed principally by the Copyright Act 2022 (which repealed the Copyright Act, Cap. C28, LFN 2004), adopts the 'fair dealing' model inherited from English law, rather than the broader, more flexible 'fair use' doctrine associated with American copyright jurisprudence. Fair dealing permits specified, narrowly defined uses of copyrighted works - such as for private study, research, criticism, review, news reporting, and educational purposes - without infringing the rights of the copyright owner. Unlike the open-ended, four-factor American fair use test, Nigeria’s approach is more rigid, tying permissible use to an enumerated list of exceptions found in the Second Schedule to the Act. This piece examines the scope and limits of fair dealing under Nigerian law, considers how Nigerian courts have interpreted these exceptions, and explores the tension between rigid statutory categorisation and the more flexible, adaptable fair use standard. It further considers whether Nigeria’s continued reliance on fair dealing serves the demands of a digital, knowledge-driven economy, or whether reform toward a more flexible fair use-style framework is now overdue.
