Chief Tony Okoroji, Chairman, Copyright Society of Nigeria, the nation’s sole approved collective management organisation for musical works and sound recordings at the weekend declared COSON’s resolve to ensure an absolute end to further abuse and arbitrary use of musical works by broadcast stations and other music users without remission of the appropriate royalties due to the creators of the works.
Speaking in Lagos
on September 1, at this year’s event marking the No Music Day celebration,
Chief Okoroji reiterated COSON’s resolve to go after any copyright violator
whose daily operations depend largely on the use of music but who continues to
see no reason the owners should be compensated for the use of their
intellectual property.
Chief Okoroji said: “COSON is determined to
substantially increase the royalty distributable to stakeholders in the music
industry to match the massive use of music in our nation. Last year, COSON was
compelled to institute several multi billion Naira law suits against some users
of music and sound recordings in Nigeria. This was after every attempt at moral
suasion had failed. COSON had to go to court as a last resort. As you know, the
court actions were productive. It however appears that old habits die hard.
Some of the users may have gone back to their old ways and not all have learnt
the lesson that the days of free music are gone in Nigeria forever. Some may
also be testing the resolve of COSON.”
The annual No Music Day celebration put together by
the Nigeria Music Industry Coalition; a coalition of the key national
associations in the music industry across Nigeria is a day set aside to draw
national attention to the widespread infringement of the rights of composers,
song writers, performers, music publishers and other stakeholders in the music
industry in Nigeria.
The theme of this year’s celebration is ‘Keep the music alive’.
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