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Intellectual property refers to creative works such as inventions; artistic and literary works. It could be classified into patents, copyrights, industrial designs, geographical indications and trademarks. However, this study is focused on how the protection of the copyright of owners can enhance intellectual development. The law governing Intellectual Property ensures the security and enforcement of legal rights of owners and punish those that violate such laws. One of the major intricacies of technologies of communication is the unlimited access they accord to users, which sometimes result to unauthorized reproduction and duplication of intellectual properties. This constitutes a threat to owners of intellectual properties. Anigilage (1997) averred that the speed and accuracy provided by these technologies have facilitated the infringement of copyright law. The desire to protect a man’s investment in the creation of a work, be it a literary work as in copyright, an invention as in patents, distinctive trademarks as in trademarks from unauthorized economic exploitation by another person, is the rationale for the protection of intellectual property (Nwadei, 2016). The author further maintained that legislations appertaining to intellectual property are geared towards protecting property rights, which incidentally, if properly promoted can impact technological transfer and industrialization in the country. Protection of copyright materials are not designed or meant to limit public access but to protect the economic and rights of authors.

It was held in the case of Gero v Seven-Up Company that the goal of copyright protection is not to inhibit the free flow of information but to encourage dissemination of ideas by protecting the embodiment or expression of an idea in creative work and reserving the right in it to the creator of the work. The establishment of some viable or appropriate structure and legal framework in Nigeria (such as copyright act, patents, and industrial designs trademarks) is aimed at protecting creators of intellectual materials. This makes it easy and necessary for authors to institute legal action against any person(s) who reproduces or duplicates their works without their consent.

It is against this backdrop that Adedeji (2007) documented that all over the world; the right to peaceful enjoyment of property has been recognized as a fundamental right that citizens cannot be deprived of. Stressing on the importance of protecting copyright owners, Aguda (1992) remarked that law had given every member of the society the right of protection of his tangible or physical property. It gives the owner, the exclusive privilege to control in some respect to the reproduction of copies and the use of the original work or composition. It is on this note that Asein (1990) opined that the protection accorded copyright holders rest primarily on the theory that a creator should be entitled to the fruits of his labour. Adedeji also reiterated that all over the world, it has been recognized that protection of copyright is the best means of promoting creativity, stimulating men and women of talent to create further works, thus building up national heritage. The essence of the copyright law is to protect the writers and artists from the unlawful use and reproduction of material and as well helps to promote creativity’.

Considering the literatures presented above Adedeji (2007), Nwadei (2016), Anigilage (1997), Ekpa and Kure (2015) and others, it is clear that the most of the authors recognized the need to protect copyright owners to enhance intellectual development and for them to benefit from their works. However, they did not provide possible solutions to the crux of the problem which is a gap that demands attention. Therefore, this study is focused on filling this gap: to examine the need for protecting copyright owners in Nigeria. The study, further investigate the effect of the promoting copyright owners on availability of intellectual materials and suggest possible means of ensuring the protection of copyright owners. The study equally examined the strength of the punishment on copyright offenders under the copyright law in Nigeria.

The aim of the study is to examine the need for protecting copyright owners in Nigeria: a panacea for intellectual development and suggest possible means of protecting copyright owners in Nigeria. The specific objectives are to:

• a) Find out if protecting copyright owners will enhance intellectual development in Nigeria.
• b) Ascertain if protecting copyright owners will promote availability of intellectual materials.
• c) Proffer possible suggestions for protecting copyright owners.

A considerable amount of efforts has been made by scholars expressing their views on the need for protecting copyright owners. It is obvious that, authors are likely to take greater interest in creativity if they are sure that they will be adequately remunerated and their rights are protected by an enduring copyright system as documented by Okiwlagwe (2000). The author reiterated that if this is upheld then, there is likelihood of adequate availability of various publications to meet reading needs of Nigerians. It is against this background that Hassan (1976) noted that protection of copyright is the best means of promoting creativity, stimulating men and women of talent to create further works and thus building up the national heritage. Lack of protection kills talent and even national prestige.

Writing on this, Philips in Umaru (2002) advocated that all the statutory protections given to intellectual property are found on the principle that unauthorized use of another’s intellectual labour is unfair exploitation of it, which the law should not permit. The author reiterated that another reason given for copyright protection is that a man who has spent money, time and energy to create a work from which the society benefits, is entitled to be rewarded or reciprocated by the society by granting him monopoly over that work for limited duration. It is as a result of this that Ekpere (2002) depicted that a complementary objective of copyright legislation is to foster the growth of learning and culture for public good.

Okiwlagwe (2000) opined that copyright law is based on the assumption that an author is more likely to be motivated to embark on continuous production of intellectual products, if there is the assurance that another individual cannot claim neither the credit nor the profit economically from the author’s effort. The author reiterated that copyright law does not protect ideas but exists only when the ideas are put in tangible format such as written works or other forms of expression.

Nwadei (2016) observed that it is essential to protect authors and inventors from the exploitation of their works as it is essential policy of government to reward hard work and discourage laziness and indolence. This is in agreement with Asein (1990) who remarked that it is unfair to allow a man who has failed to harness his innate potentials or develop his skills and knowledge from benefiting from the hard work of another person. The utmost aim of the copyright law is to protect the property owner of a copyright work seeing that his labour is not unjustifiable expropriated or reaped by people who are not the producers of such labour as recorded by Aboki (2002). The author maintained that the economic bases of the copyright law is to make sure that people who make inventions secure the pride, reward, encouragement and incentive of their labour. The author therefore concluded that, it will amount to criminal, fraudulent and cheating to do any acts or omission which will deprive an owner of a copyrightable work the benefit of his labour.

It is necessary to state that creating a system of rewards for creators of intellectual and artistic work would encourage citizens to engage in creativity that would foster economic, scientific, social and cultural development. John Locke in his book titled Treatises Government cited in Ashabi (2007) said though the earth and all inferior creatures are common to all men, yet every man has a property of his own person, this nobody has any right to but himself. This is in conformity with Schlatter (1951) who said that the labour of his body, the product of his brains and work of hands are properly his. Emphasizing on the need of protecting copyright owners, Eze (1990) remarked that the value and relevance of any national copyright system has to be, therefore, judged from its potency to stimulate intellectual creativity in local authors and creators.

Nnaji (1986) documented that without copyright protection, authors will be reluctant to engage in the difficult working of writing as a reasonable hope of financial return will be lacking. The author reiterated that few people will embark on the exacting work of writing if no restriction exists to check intellectual banditry which will, in effect, minimize possible remuneration due to their works. However, Section 6(1)(a) of the second schedule of the Copyright Act provides that:

“the doing of any of the acts mentioned in the said section 6 by way of fair dealing for purposes of research, private use, criticism or review or the reporting of current events subject to the condition that, if the use is public, it shall be accompanied by an acknowledgement of the title of the work and its authorship except where the work is incidentally included in a broadcast”.

The effect of this provision is that it allows researchers and students to reprint or quote portions of intellectual property provided there is an acknowledgement of the title and authorship.

Guobadia (1998) did not quite agree with this. According to him, it is not sufficient to simply acknowledge the endeavour. To him he sees no reason why an author should be prevented from commercial exploitation of his creative work locally and internationally. He reiterated that if the right to commercial exploitation of the product of man’s ingenuity is restricted to copyright disregard, it may be major disincentive to authors, scholars and researcher because of the absence of material rewards.

It is against this background that Ajetunmobi (2017) documented that it is equitable that the creators be compensated for the exploitation of their works as a return for the labour and skill they applied in creating their works. The author further maintained that creativity and invention are the product of the human intellect and consequently creators and investors should have the right to control their works. Though the law has helped to strike a balance between the interest of innovators and public interest, providing an environment in which creativity and invention can flourish, for the benefit of all which bothers on fair use principle.

Writing on the problems affecting intellectual property rights in Nigeria, Adeleye (2016) observed that dates of enactment of principal legislations relating to intellectual property rights in Nigeria clearly show that the laws were made long ago at a time that many of the current day development were not in the consciousness of the legislators. The author lamented that the result of the use of outdated legislations is that the protection offered in Nigeria is substandard in comparison to the updated laws now operating in other jurisdictions. This means that there is need to review the law to be in line with laws of other jurisdictions of other civilized nations. Furthermore, Opadere (2011) lamented the diverse ways, works of which are subject to copyright protection have been grossly abused by corporate entities and individuals alike, to the extent that it could hardly be said that there is any impressive appreciation for arts in Nigeria. Despite that there are law enforcement agencies, copyright commission set up to guard against infringement, it appears the law is still far from being effective.

This study applied descriptive survey design. According to Nworgu (2015) descriptive survey design aims at collecting data on something and describing it in a systematic manner. The author further explained that it is a plan or blueprint which specifies how data relating to a given problem should be collected and analyzed. The study lends itself to descriptive survey, because the respondents’ description of the situation in protecting copyright owners in Nigeria. A total of one hundred and twelve (112) copies of the structured questionnaire were distributed among the respondents and one hundred and eight (108) were properly filled and retrieved making up a respondent rate of 96.4%. The researcher analyzed and interpreted the response using simple percentage, frequency tables and means scores.

The findings from Table 3 shows that the respondents accepted all the items with high mean scores, culminating to a grand mean of 3.38 (3.38 ≥ 2.50). This indicates that the protecting copyright encourages intellectual owners in Nigeria. This gives credence to Okiwlagwe (2000) who earlier remarked that authors are likely to take greater interest in creativity if they are sure that they will be adequately remunerated and their rights are protected by an enduring copyright system. This agrees with Nnaji (1986) who documented that without copyright protection, authors will be reluctant to engage in difficult working of writing as a reasonable hope of financial return will be lacking. This statement is confirmed by Asein (1990), that it is unfair to allow a man who has failed to harness his innate potentials or develop his skills and knowledge from benefitting from the hardwork of another. These goes to show that authors will do better if the law could protect their works from infringement.

The respondents accepted all the items with individual mean as follows; item 1 with a mean score of 2.19, item 2 with a mean score of 1.91, item 3 with a means score of 2.03, item four with a mean score of 2.05 and item 5 with a mean score of 1.95, cumulatively, the five items were responded to with a grand mean of 2.02 (2.02 ≤ 2.50) leading to the rejected of the items.

The implication of the result on Table 5 showed that all five (5) were accepted as possible means of protecting copyright owners in Nigeria. The result showed that 89.8% agreed that Peer review process manuscript publication was important to ensure originality of literal works. Over 94.4% agreed that strict punishment for crimes against copyright owners were required to protect copyright owners in Nigeria This is in agreement with Adeleye (2016) who observed that dates of enactment of principle legislations relating to intellectual property rights clearly shows that laws were enacted long ago at a time that many of the current day development were not in the consciousness of the legislators. Despite the presence of law enforcement agencies, copyright commission set up to guard against infringement is weak and has not been effective. The punishment provided for in the Act is not stringent enough to discourage infringers from committing copyright crimes.

Firstly, the study shows that protecting the copyright owners would enhance intellectual development in Nigeria. The protection accorded to copyright owners rests solely on the theory that a creator should be entitled to the fruits of labour, if this is assured then authors would be likely to take greater interest in creativity so long they will be adequately remunerated and their rights protected by the law. The courts have been of immense assistance in prosecuting culprits that have been infringing on copyright law. Furthermore, the progress in technologies that has eased the task of unauthorized reproduction and duplication of intellectual properties and infringement of copyright law can be checked by improved legislation and effective enforcement by the Nigerian copyright commission (NCC). The establishment of appropriate structures and legal frameworks in Nigeria must be aimed at protecting creators of intellectual materials. The right to peaceful enjoyment of one’s property has been recognized as a fundamental right that citizens cannot be deprived of. However, owners of intellectual property deserve good earnings for their intellectual works in order to promote book production so as to meet the reading needs of the citizens at the various levels.

The present study also showed that the protection of copyright of owners does not reduce the availability of intellectual materials; the fair use doctrine ensures the availability of intellectual materials but should also be reviewed in accordance with the best practices in the world as highlighted above. In the light of the possible suggestion to protecting copyright owners, the study recommended that the copyright law be revisited or amended with respect to international best practices with weightier punishment and not just a 100 naira by copy not even per page when the defaulter could sell a copy for 5000 naira and more depending on the quality and creative work or book. This provision on punishment in the instant law is not stringent enough and should be reviewed such that it deters people from infringing on authors rights. Adequate funding should be made available to the Nigerian Copyright Commission to enable the Commission perform her statutory duties effectively and the judiciary should ensure all cases relating to copyright violation in our Courts should be summarily dealt with as quickly as possible to encourage the commission in discharging her duties creditably.

Lastly, as a way of protecting the copyright owners and increase intellectual development, the copyright law to be reviewed to include plagiarism offenses which is not defined in the Nigerian law while all institutions in Nigeria should as a matter of urgency fight plagiarism. Based on the findings of this study and previous studies, there is no doubt that protecting the copyright owners is the panacea to intellectual development in Nigeria.