Copying for Private Use as a Safety Valve for Copyright Infringement under the Cameroon Copyright Law
Keywords:
Analysis, Copyright, Expose, Infringement, Personal use or private use, Safety valveAbstract
That copyright infringement in Cameroon is alarming is and is not new. This article sets out to expose how copying for personal or private use as permitted under the copyright law of Cameroon constitutes a gateway for copyright infringement and its consequences. Apart from other factors that account for such infringement, the 2000 copyright law indirectly promotes copyright infringement. Specifically, the article assumes that the exception of personal use provides a gateway to copyright infringement which constitutes a serious problem for copyright holders and the society. One further finds that this short coming in the law has deprived authors of artistic, literary or musical work. T he findings were arrived at by making an analysis of primary and secondary data on this topic. The article recommends the need for a reconsideration of the motives that underpin Section 29(1)(c) of the 2000 copyright law of Cameroon that operates to deprive copyright holders of their rights. A cursory look at the provision shows that it serves as a safety valve for copyright infringement in Cameroon.
References
1. Law No. 2000/011 of Dece mber 19, 2000 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights.
2. Section 15(1) of Law No. 2000/011 of December 19, 2000 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights.
3. Sections 13 -17 of Decree N o. 2001/956/PM of November 1, 2001 implementing Law N o. 2000/11 of December 19, 2000 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights.
4. Peter K. Yu, Intellectual Property and Information Wealth: Copyright and related rights , Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-275-98883-8, 2007, P. 346.
5. Article 9 of the Berne Conventi on for the Protection of Literary and Artist ic Works 1886.
6. Article 6bis of the Berne Convention.
7. Peter K. Yu, op. cit., P. 346.
8. Preamble of the Universal Copyright Convention, with Appen dix Declaration relating to Articles XVII and Resolution concerning Article XI 1952.
9. Section 29(1)(c) of the Cop yright and Neighboring Rights Law.
10. Sections 13 -17 of Decree N o. 2001/956/PM of November 1, 2001 implementing Law No. 2000/11 of December 19, 200 0 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights.
11. Article 2(8) of the Copyrig ht and Neighboring Rights Law.
12. Kaushik G. A ccess to Knowledge in Africa: How to free a continent from the shackles of copyright, LLM Thesis, University of Kent, September 2006, P. 22,
13. Section 3(1) of the 2000 Cop yrights and Neighbouring rights law of Cameroon.
14. Article 2 of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works on September 21, 1964. See also article 1 V olume 1, Issue 2 JIPRL (2018) 13-25 © Law Journals 2018. All Rights Reserved Page 23 of the Universal Copyright Convention, with Appendix D eclaration relating to Articles XVII and Resolution concerning Article XI 1952.
15. Section 4 of the 2000 Copyright and Neighboring Rights Law.
16. Ibid., Section 3(4)(a).
17. Ibid., Section 3(4)(b) and (c).
18. Ibid., Section 5.
19. Ibid., Section 6.
20. Section 94 of the Cameroon Copyright and Neighboring Rights Law.
21. Peter K. Yu, op. cit., P. 346.
22. Simon, Stokes, Art and copyright , Hart Publishing, ISBN 978 -1-84113-225-9, 2001, pp. 48–49.
23. Under section 2(1) of the Copyright and Neighboring Rights Law, “original work” mean one which, by virtue of its characteristics or expression, can be differentiated from previous works.
24. Article 7 (6) of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
25. Ibid., Article 7 (1) which is to the effect that the term of p rotection granted by this Convention shall be the life of the author and fifty years after his death.
26. Ibid., Article 7 (4).
27. Ibid., Article 7 (2).
28. Article 7 (3) of the Berne Convention.
29. Article IV (2) of the Universal Copyright Convention 1952.
30. Ibid., Article IV (1).
31. Ibid., Article IV (3).
32. Section 69 of the Copyright and Neighboring Rights Law of Cameroon.
33. Article 13 of Decree N o. 2001/956/PM of November 1, 2001 implementing Law N o. 2000/11 of December 19,
34. 2000 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights.
35. Section 7 0 of the Copyright and Neighboring Rights Law.
36. Article 14 of Decree No. 2001/956/PM of November 1, 2001 implement ing Law N o. 2000/11 of December 19, 2000 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights.
37. Ibid., Article 15.
38. Section 71 of the Copyright and Neighboring Rights Law.
39. Section 5(4) pro vides that the amount received shall be d eposited in a cultural policy support fund.
40. Section 72 of the Copyright and Neighboring Rights Law.
41. Ibid., Section 73.
42. Article 16 of Decree No. 2001/956/PM of November 1, 2001 implementing Law No. 2000/11 of Decembe r 19, 2000 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights.
43. Collective management is the exercise of copyright and related rights by organizations and societies representing the interests of the owners of such rights. By serving as effective links between right owners and users, collective management organizations help in ensuring that right owners rec eive payment for the use of their works. This payment serves as an incentive for composers, writers, musicians, singers and performers, who are among society’s most valua ble assets. In Cameroon, all the authoriz ed bodies have adopted the form of a non - commercial association: SOCILADRA (Société civile des droits de la littérature et des arts dramatiques (Civil Society for Literary and Dramatic Art )); SOCIDRAP (Société civil e des droits audiovisuals et photographiques (Civil Society for audiovisual and photog raphic art)); SOCADAP (Société civile de droit d’auteur et droits voisins des arts plastiques et graphiques (Collective management organizations of copyright)); CMC (Cameroon Music Corporation).
44. Section 74 of th e Copyright and Neighboring Rights Law.
45. Section 5(4) provides that the amount received shall be deposited in a cultural policy support fund.
46. Article 17 of Decree N o. 2001/956/PM of November 1, 2001 implementing Law No. 2000/11 of December 19, 2000 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights.
47. Gramophone Company v Birender Bahadur Pandey, AIR 1984 SC 667 at 676, cited by Shivendra Singh and Aprajita, Insight into the Nature of Offence of Copy right Infringement, Vol 13, November 2008, p 583, at JIPRL (2018) 13-25 © Law Journals 2018. All Rights Reserved Page 24 http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456 789/2433/1/JIPR%2013%286%29%20583 -589.pdf, (25 May 2018).
48. Section 82 of the 2000 Copyright and Neighboring Rights Law w hich provide that (1) the offences referred to in Sections 80 and 81 [shall] be punishable by imprisonment of fro m 5 (five) to 10 (ten) years or a fine of from 500,000 to 10,000,000 CFA francs or both such imprisonment and fine. (2) The penalties provided for in this section shall b e doubled where the offender is a partner of the owner of the infringed right. For an understanding of what constitute copyright infringement, see the following articles of the 2000 Copyright Law of Cameroon:
49. The following shall constitute forgery:
50. any ex ploitation of a literary or artistic work done in violation of this law, through performance, reproduction, transformation or distribution by any means whatsoever;
51. any reproduction, communication or supply to the public through s ale, exchange, rental of a recording, a phonogram, videogram, undert aken without the authorization of the performer, phonogram or videogram producer, or the audiovisual communication firm, where such authorization is required;
52. any infringement of moral rig hts through violation of th e right of disclosure, the right of autho rship or the right to respect of a literary or artistic work;
53. any infringement of the right of authorship and the right of integrity of a performance.
54. 81(1) The following shall also be considered forgery:
55. the import ation, exportation, sale or putting up fo r sale of forged objects; the importation or exportation of phonograms or videograms produced without the authorization of their performer or producer, where such authorization is required; manufacturing or importin g, with the intention of selling or renti ng or setting up equipment, material, device or instrument entirely or partially designed to fraudulently record programs broadcast where such programs are reserved for a specific public that receives them in return for a fee paid to their operator or his legal representatives; the fraudulent neutralization of effective technical measures used by owners of copyrights or neighboring rights to protect their works against unauthorized acts; al lowing the irregular reprod uction or performance in one’s establishment of works protected by this law; failure t o pay or unjustified late payment of a fee as provided for by this law; carrying out the following acts, knowingly or, for civil sanctions, hav ing good reason to believe that this Act will lead to, enable, facil itate or conceal infringement of a right provided for in this law:
56. unauthorized removal or alteration of any electronic information relating to the copyright regime;
57. the distribution, impo rtation for distribution, u nauthorized communication of originals or copies of works, performances, videograms, p honograms, programs, while knowing that the electronic information relating to the copyright regime has been removed or altered without authorization.
58. (2) “Information on copyright regime” shall mean information that helps to identify the work, performance, videogram, phonogram or program, or information on the conditions of use of such productions and any number or code representing such information where one of these elements of information is attached to a cop y of a production or is linked to the communication of a production to the public. Gramophone Company, op. cit. Section 85 (1) of the 2000 Copyright and Neighbouring Rights law of Cameroon provides that in case of v iolation of or threat to violate the righ ts provided in this law, the natural persons or corporate bodies or their legal representatives who own such rights, may request a judicial police officer or a bailiff to establish the sai d infringements and, if need be, seize, on the authorization of the State Counsel or competent judge, the forged copies, the illegally imported copies and objects and the equipment used or to be used for performance or reproduction, and set up to commit such forbidden acts. V olume 1, Issue 2 JIPRL (2018) 13-25 © Law Journals 2018. All Rights Reserved Page 25
59. Section 93 (1) of Law No. 2005 of 27 July 2005 on the Cameroon Criminal Procedure Code is to t he effect that the judicial police officers who possess search warrants shall carry out searches and seizures. The proviso to the sub section further provides that the ju dicial police officer may act without a search warrant in cases of a felony or a misde meanor committed flagrante delicto. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copyi ng_levy, (11 May 2018).
60. Ibid. Cite this Article N.A.H. Anthony Tetinwe . Copying for Private Use as a Safet y V alve for Copyright Infri ngement under the Cameroon Copyright Law . Journal of Intellectual Property Rights Law . 201 8; 1(2): 13–25p.
