SPECIAL ROLES OF LIBRARIES IN COPYRIGHT ENFORCEMENT: A SURVEY OF THE COPYRIGHT LAWS OF NIGERIA, INDIA AND UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Abstract

Copyright Laws confer a bundle of rights on authors of rights such as the rights of production, publication, performance, adaptation, broadcasting, etc, in relation to their works. The reason for the conferment of these rights is to allow authors to reap economic benefits accruing from their creation, thereby encouraging them to create more works. While conferring these monopoly rights on authors, the Laws create certain exceptions to these rights to enable the general public gain access to copyrightable works, use them fairly to create more works and thereby promote the dissemination of information and knowledge. The Libraries play active roles in the dissemination of information in that they make available to the general public, protected works free of charge. The Copyright Laws also mandate the Libraries to carry out some functions such as lending, borrowing, production, publication, translation, etc, in relation to protected works, to enable users to access these works pursuant to the limitations to the author’s rights under the Laws. Most often, breach of Copyright occurs in the exercise of these functions. Again, the use of technological protective devices in Digital Libraries tends to inhibit accesses to protected works. More so, the dichotomy between Public Libraries and Private Libraries as contained in some of these Copyright Laws frustrates the functions of these Private Libraries which is making accessible works either available or scarce, for the advancement of knowledge and information. This work adopted doctrinal and empirical research methods in examining the Copyright Acts of Nigeria, United States of America, India and other Copyright related Instruments in order to discover the efficacy of these Laws and these Libraries in the enforcement of Copyright vis a viz public access to protected works. Recommendations were made on repositioning the Libraries to effectively carry out their function of disseminating information to the general public.