Due to the growth of social media and the internet in the last ten years, the world has witnessed a spike in music, television, creative arts and the movie industries. These areas are all encompassed under a general industry known as the Entertainment Industry. Entertainment law is the body of laws that govern the entertainment industry. Succinctly put, it is the various rules and regulations guiding the creation of content in whatever form, for public consumption needed for relaxation, amusement, and even business.
Entertainment law, which is a subset of Media Law and the general body of Intellectual Property Law, has for decades now in Nigeria, been underutilized, undeveloped, and largely left untouched. It is for this reason that there is no composite body of law regulating the Entertainment Industry. It should be noted at this point that the entertainment industry in Nigeria is largely dependent on the legal framework provided by Intellectual property laws.
The legal issues emanating from this industry are usually, like most novel areas of law, regulated by multiple laws. It is closely bordered and guided by many other areas of law such as labour law, contract law, finance and tax laws, Copyright and Trademarks Act, various rules of Court, etc. Entertainment law in Nigeria derives its life from already existing enactments and thus, these practice areas often intertwine with entertainment law.
However, given the heavy economic flow that these industries generate, it has become imperative that this area of law should be administered by its own body of laws, different and distinct from the conglomerated laws, chiefly the Copyright and Trademarks Act which provides for literary work in general.
The import of this article, therefore, is to investigate the present legal framework governing entertainment law in Nigeria, and thereafter make a case for a codification of a specialized body of law, for the sole administration of the entertainment industry in Nigeria. The article shall also include the benefits of a codified law to the jurisprudential space in Nigeria.