Newspaper Copyright and the Permissible Adaptation for Playwrights in Nigeria : Lessons from Òlòtūré

In 2014, a journalist, Tobore Ovuorie published an article on human trafficking in The Premium Time, an online newspaper in Nigeria. In 2019, a movie, Òlòtūré, was produced by Ebonylife, which is an adaptation of Tobore's article after permission had been granted by The Premium Times. Under the Nigerian Copyright Act, the rule on where the copyright in newspaper articles lies is provided in section 9(3) of the Copyright Act. The rule provides that where an author makes a literary, artistic or musical work in the course of his employment by the proprietor of a newspaper, the proprietor shall, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, be the first owner of copyright in the work insofar as the copyright relates to the publication of the work in any newspaper, but in all other respects, the author shall be the first owner of the copyright in the work. This interpretation seems somewhat difficult for practitioners who have come up with different opinions on who owns the copyright in the article between Tobore and The Premium Times. In addressing this question, this article discusses what is copyrightable in a work and explores the jurisprudence of ownership of copyright in Nigeria. The extent to which adaptation of a work is allowed under copyright law is also analysed. The article employs analytical, narrative and theoretical approaches in addressing the subject