Protecting Copyright Owners in Nigeria: A Panacea for Intellectual Development

The paper looks at protecting copyright owners in Nigeria: a panacea for intellectual development. A descriptive survey design was adopted in carrying out the study. The sample size for the study was 112. Three research objectives guided the study. The study utilized a self-developed questionnaire for data collection. A total of 112 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to librarian and lecturers, out of which 108 copies were duly filled and returned, representing 96.4%. The collected data was arranged in frequency and analyzed using percentage and mean score. The findings revealed that protection of copyright will encourage creators of intellectual works, and that if authors are well remunerated there is likelihood of adequate availability of various publications to meet information needs of Nigerians. The result showed that the right to intellectual properties is one of the ways to encourage intellectual development. The finding revealed that copyright protection provides security for intellectual product and does not negatively affect the availability of intellectual materials. Based on the research findings, it was recommended that owners of intellectual property deserve good earnings for their intellectual works in order to promote Knowledge proliferation and availability so as to meet the reading needs of the citizens at the various levels. The study also recommended that all cases relating to copyright violation in our courts should be summarily dealt with. The study advocated that the provision on the punishment should be reviewed such that it could deter people from infringing on authors rights.