COPYRIGHT

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), especially generative technologies that can create literary, artistic, musical, and audiovisual works with minimal or no human involvement, has posed significant challenges to the fundamental principles of copyright law. Traditional copyright frameworks are based on human creativity, originality, and identifiable authorship. However, the rise of AI-generated content in the digital age or era has muddled these concepts and introduced complex legal dilemmas surrounding copyright validity, authorship attribution, and ownership rights. These issues are increasingly pertinent worldwide and are particularly critical in Nigeria, where the digital innovation landscape is rapidly evolving alongside the implementation of the Copyright Act 2022, which does not explicitly address fully autonomous AI-generated works. This dissertation aims to explore the legal framework governing copyright ownership of AIgenerated content in the digital age, with a distinct emphasis on the Nigerian legal context. The research evaluates whether existing provisions under the Nigerian Copyright Act 2022 sufficiently tackle problems related to authorship, originality, and ownership regarding AI-generated works. The study's objectives include uncovering conceptual and doctrinal deficiencies in the current legal structure, assessing the operational efficacy of copyright protection and enforcement mechanisms, and analyzing the broader legal, socio-economic, and policy implications of creativity driven by AI. Additionally, the research intends to glean insights from international and comparative legal systems to suggest potential strategies for future legal and policy reforms in Nigeria. To meet these aims, the research employs a doctrinal legal methodology that involves a comprehensive analysis of primary legal sources, which include international copyright treaties, regional agreements, national laws, and relevant judicial rulings. It scrutinizes key international agreements like the Berne Convention, the TRIPS Agreement, and the WIPO Internet Treaties to outline the global normative standards for copyright protection, while also critically assessing the Nigerian Copyright Act 2022 as the chief or main domestic legal text. Furthermore, secondary sources such as academic books, peer-reviewed journal articles, policy documents, and reports from international and regional organizations are utilized to provide scholarly and contextual insights on the matter. The study additionally adopts a comparative legal perspective by looking at how various jurisdictions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and certain Asian and African nations, have tackled the copyright challenges associated with AI-generated content. This comparative examination facilitates an assessment of the diverse legal responses to authorship and ownership of AI-generated works and helps identify best practices that could be relevant to Nigeria. An analytical and evaluative method is employed to assess the sufficiency of the current legal and institutional frameworks, particularly in relation to enforcement issues in the digital landscape. In summary, the dissertation offers a thorough legal analysis of AI-generated content and copyright ownership, concentrating on the effectiveness of current legal frameworks and methodologies. It establishes a groundwork for informed legal reform by identifying critical issues and providing insights aimed at achieving a balanced copyright system that fosters technological innovation while protecting intellectual property rights in the digital age.

The relevance of Intellectual Property protection to our day to day activities has repeatedly been shown to be a settled matter. For this reason, the dawn of information age and the advancement of technology in the reproduction of information and intellectual goods has created a favorable tool for piracy; copying and selling of another's intellectual works have become easy and less expensive; Copyright theft; Production of fake, Sub-standard and unlicensed products are on the increase. Hence, Copyright Piracy is a global problem, although more prevalent in developing countries like Nigeria. Copyright piracy has been recognized worldwide as an enemy of creative arts, intellectualism and creativity. It obstructs genuine investments and corrupts cultural value of a nation. Section / of the Copyright Act CAP C28 LFN 2004 makes provisions for the definition, protection, transfer, infringement of and remedy, and penalty thereof of copyright in forms of Literal, Musical, Dramatic and Sound recordings works. It is pertinent to observe that online generated materials can be classified under the category of literary works. Of greater importance, Sections 2 and 3 of the Copyright Act is to the effect that, copyright protection of any
physical creative work is local, while the reach of the internet is international. The provisions of Sections 2 and 3 above presents a strenuous task for the protection of copyrights and enforcement of wrongdoings committed across the border. In respect of that, Section 2(1) of the Copyright Act provides that copyright shall be conferred by this section on every work eligible for copyright of which the authors or in the case of a work of a joint authorship, any of the authors is at the time when the work is made, a citizen, or is domiciled in Nigeria Nigeria's status as a favorable destination for foreign direct investment and a place where local creative talent can flourish is in jeopardy due to the activities of individuals who unjustifiably infringe on another's copyright works. It is in recognition of the above fundamental facts that the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), which is saddled with the responsibility of monitoring, administering and enforcing copyright laws and ensuring proper implementation of set out rules and regulations on the citizenry in the case of default seeks to fight against piracy.