Developing a Copyright Curriculum for Nigerian Universities for the Creative Digital Space

Abstract

This paper explores the significance of teaching and learning digital copyright laws within a reformed Nigerian copyright regime. It further analyzes how an experiential and clinical teaching pedagogy, developed as part of a copyright law curriculum, will become an agency to protect, safeguard, and impel the development of Nigerian creative industries, particularly the film sector. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy and an emerging creative industrial power. The training and expertise of its legal professionals in the knowledge and creative economy have significant impact beyond Nigeria, across the length and breadth of the other African countries. The article sets out to provide a recipe for a functional approach to the development of a digital copyright curriculum in the law faculties of Nigerian universities as a pragmatic and industry-focused way of teaching while adding value to the creative industries. The paper further examines how the law faculties of Nigerian universities could redesign their copyright curriculum to teach not just theories but, more importantly, the wider policy framework. The paper also explores how to understand the practical, business, and economic systems of the creative industries. The paper uses Nollywood, the contemporary Nigerian film industry, as a case study to continue the discussion on the sustainable development of the Nigerian creative industries.

Keywords: digital copyright, Nollywood, Nigerian films, African creative industries, copyright curriculum, universities

JEL Classification: K33