The Role of the Judiciary in Copyright Enforcement in Sierra Leone

Abstract

The Judiciary in Sierra Leone was established to enforce laws including property right laws of which copyright law is part of. The objective of enforcing copyright laws in Sierra Leone is to protect the works of right holders thereby minimising or eliminating copyright infringement that is in the increase in this technological age. Thus the aim of this research project is to examine the role of the Judiciary towards the enforcement of copyright in Sierra Leone as provided by Part IX of the Copyright Act (No.8) 2011 and to investigate whether this role is adequately and effectively exercised. The research project examined the structures put in place to achieve a viable copyright enforcement system in Sierra Leone, enforcement measures and the impact created by the Judiciary in enforcing copyright. In this study, the target population included judicial officials (Judges and Magistrates) and right holders (authors, musicians, actors/actresses and artists in the creative industry) in Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone. The target population for judicial officials in the Freetown judicial district is about 30 and out of this number, 20 respondents were sampled and administered with questionnaires and 18 questionnaires were filled by the respondents and collected by the researcher. There are over 150 rights holders in Freetown and out of this number, 30 respondents were sampled and administered with questionnaires. 22 questionnaires were filled by the respondents and collected by the researcher. Questionnaires were used to elicit information and the responses from the questionnaires were interpreted through the use of SPSS software. The study revealed that no special court on copyright enforcement was established to try such cases; there is weak copyright enforcement; prosecution lapses; low copyright awareness and little impact had been created by the Judiciary in enforcing copyrights in Sierra Leone. The research was concluded that there is need for copyright training programme for judicial officials, establish special copyright or IP courts, expedite copyright cases in court and the prosecution to be vibrant for an effective copyright system in Sierra Leone.