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African Copyright Laws in Relation to International Copyright Conventions: A Study of two Systems with Particular Reference to Term of Protection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Extract

Some African countries are members of either the Berne Convention or the Universal Copyright Convention. Some belong to both. Membership of these conventions confers certain rights and obligations. One of the obligations is that local conditions must be favourable for the implementation of provisions of the international conventions. By this arrangement it is expected that national copyright laws must not be inconsistent with the international copyright conventions ot which the countries concerned are members.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1976

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References

2 See UCC, Art. X (1) and (2).

3 Berne, Art. 7 (1).

4 Ibid., Art. 7 (4).

5 Ibid., Art. 7 (5).

6 Ibid., Art. 7 (3).

page 59 note 1 UCC, Art. IV (2).

page 59 note 2 Ibid., Art. IV (3).

page 59 note 3 UCC, Art. IV (1).

page 59 note 4 UCC, Art. X (1) and (2).

page 59 note 5 Ibid., Art. II.

page 60 note 1 See, for example, copyright laws of Ghana, s. 4, Kenya, s. 6, Malawi, s. 6, Nigeria, s. 4, Zambia, s. 6.

page 60 note 2 Nigeria: Copyright Decree, 1970, s. 4.

page 60 note 3 Under the U.K. Copyright Law, 1956, s. 39 (1), publications of government departments are protected for 50 years irrespective of the class of publication.

page 60 note 4 Berne, Arts. 19, 20; UCC, Art. II.

page 60 note 5 For a definition of publication, see below.

page 60 note 6 Berne, Art. 3 (3).

page 60 note 7 UCC, Art. II (2); Berne, 3 (1) (a).

page 61 note 1 Great Britain, Laws, statutes etc. Copyright Act, 1956, s. 49.

page 61 note 2 (1849) 1 M. & G. 25.

page 61 note 3 Skone James, E. P.Copinger and Skone James on copyright, 11th ed. London, Sweet & Maxwell, 1971.Google Scholar

page 61 note 4 E.g. Nigeria: Copyright Decree, 1970, s. 19 (1).

page 61 note 5 Ibid., s. 1 (2) (b).

page 61 note 6 E.g., in the relevant legislation: Kenya, s. 17; Malawi, s. 18; Nigeria, s. 16.

page 61 note 7 (1774) 4 Burr. 2408.

page 62 note 1 Ghana Copyright Act, 1961, s. 4: 50 years for literary, musical or artistic works; 25 years for cinematograph films and photographs; and 25 years for sound recordings.