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| Chief Tony Okoroji |
It is instructive that the repeated
announcements, mainly on AIT, Ray Power FM and Faaji FM owned by Daar
Communications and Brila FM owned by Brila Broadcasting Services Ltd
respectively,coincides with the recent court actions filed by COSON against
Daar and Brila for unabated copyright infringement.
In the Nigerian democracy, the
Judiciary is the third arm of government. COSON believes that when every
attempt to resolve any issue fails, resort to the courts to interpret the laws
and examine the facts is the most civilized way to bring the issues to a
resolution and avoid breakdown of law and order.
The tasteless BON announcements
complain of ‘incessant and continuous harassment, intimidation, blackmail and
attack on broadcasting stations by COSON over un-negotiated payment of
licensing fees which in all respect were and are fixed and imposed arbitrarily
and unilaterally by COSON’. Unfortunately, the BON announcements do not give even
one example of the alleged harassment, intimidation, blackmail or attack, the
victim, the place or date. The fact is that BON cannot present any such
information because the statement is a smokescreen based on barefaced lies. If
the blatant allegations of BON were true, is the right thing to do not for the
stations sued by COSON to take the evidence to court and let the courts, once
and for all, rule that COSON is acting arbitrarily and outside the law? Why the
resort to self-help?
For the
avoidance of doubt, COSON is a very professional organization which operates strictly
within the law and subjects itself to the transparent and unfettered regulation
and oversight of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, the federal government
agency charged with such function and the International Confederation of
Societies of Authors & Composers (CISAC), the global organization
representing collective management organizations in 121 countries. COSON has received support from the entire
copyright community around the world for its professionalism and steadfastness
in the defence of the intellectual property rights of creative people in
Nigeria.With the work of COSON, the sad image of Nigeria as a lawless nation
and bastion of piracy and other forms of intellectual property infringement has
begun to abate.
Anybody
familiar with the issue knows that the unfortunate threat by the leadership of
BON is truly a smokescreen and a cunning ploy to precipitate a crisis in the
Nigerian music industry. For more than 35 years, a section of the Nigerian
broadcasting industry has fed fat from the abuse of the intellectual property
rights of creative people in Nigeria. For many years, some leaders of the broadcasting
industry in Nigeria have lived in opulence and squandered the money that should
have been used to pay royalties to musicians whose rights they have continued
to infringe recklessly while the artistes die in penury.
COSON has done everything to engage
broadcasting stations in Nigeria to peacefully do what is done in every other
country in a very professional manner. The Nigerian music industry has held
countless meetings with BON for decades and each meeting has only provided the
broadcast industry with excuse after excuse to kick the can down the road. The
fact is that there is no genuine interest in some parts of the broadcast
industry to negotiate and pay for the exploitation of musical works and sound
recordings as is done elsewhere in the world and as required under Nigerian law
and international conventions. The behaviour of a lot of BON members is that as
long as the matter is not resolved, they can continue to exploit musical works
and sound recordings for free without any consequence. They believe that it is
not in their interest to have a negotiated settlement and so they find one
excuse after another to kick the can down the road and endlessly delay any
resolution. Indeed, there are many broadcast stations in Nigeria, broadcasting
for years and receiving enormous advertising revenue that have NEVER paid one
naira for the music they play.
If the issue of royalty payment has
resulted in very expensive litigation against broadcast stations, the
leadership of the broadcast industry must accept full responsibility for the
crisis because it precipitated the crisis.
To force the issue, COSON has finally
decided to take the individual stations which are infringing the rights of
copyright owners to court since BON is not serious about resolving the matter.
In any case, BON is not a regulatory body, not a broadcasting station but
simply an association of the willing and cannot be held legally liable for the
copyright infringement by any broadcast station.
The unfortunate
statement credited to BON says that its members are frustrated by the injurious
monopoly and arbitrary imposition of manipulated tariffs on its members by
COSON. What exactly does BON mean? Is BON ignorant of the fact that COSON
cannot impose a tariff on anybody? Indeed, the Copyright (Collective Management
Organization) Regulations, 2007 has provisions for anybody who disagrees with any
tariff issued by an approved collecting society to apply to the Nigerian
Copyright Commission (NCC) to set up a panel to review such tariff? Has any
member of BON applied to the NCC as stipulated without the Commission taking
appropriate action?
COSON
has successfully negotiated copyright royalty agreements with numerous local
and international organizations including Google, Multichoice/DSTV and the
nation’s largest broadcast network, the federal government owned FRCN. COSON
has also successfully negotiated royalty agreements with the hotel industry in
Nigeria under the auspices of Hotel and Personal Services Employers Association
(HOPESEA), Hotel Owners Forum Abuja (HOFA) and Nigerian Tourism Development
Corporation (NTDC). There are several broadcasting stations that have reached agreements with
COSON and are broadcasting music comfortably as required by law. The fact is that COSON works very well with people who want to work
with COSON and for the first time in Nigeria, artistes are receiving royalties
for their works in a transparent and accountable system.
The
repeated threat of the leadership of BON to ban music made by Nigerians on the
airwaves belonging to Nigerians is to activate the ploy of the BON leadership to
precipitate a crisis of confidence around COSON and to set COSON members and
affiliates against their organization. The way they have planned it, while the
crisis lasts, they will smuggle through the backdoor the approval of MCSN, the group
which the government has long rejected and which together with its officers is
being prosecuted for different criminal activities by agencies of the Federal
government. The plan is to find ways to truncate the ongoing trial of the MCSN officers
who willingly in turn issue arrangee
copyright licences to them. Under this arrangement, the stage will be set for
some of the members of BON, notorious for not paying their bills, to continue
the wanton exploitation of the intellectual property of free citizens.
For
nearly two years, COSON knew about the disingenuous scheme being hatched by the
leadership of BON. The Director-General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission,
Mr. Afam Ezekude can confirm that COSON had notified him of this ploy both at a
meeting and by a letter dated February 8, 2012.Excerpt from the letter to
Ezekude reads: ‘Despite the close engagement which COSON has had with BON, the
organization wants to claim that there is lack of clarity as to who its members
should pay royalties to for the broadcast of musical works and sound recordings.
It is clear that this is a scheme to precipitate a crisis in the collective
management of copyright so that BON members can hide behind the crisis to
continue the free use of the entire music and sound recording repertoire in
Nigeria and slow down the progress being made by COSON. There is no question
that if the BON scheme is allowed to be activated, no one can be sure of the
exact consequences because the entire industry would be forced to go back to
the trenches’
The Attorney – General of the Federation & Minister
of Justice, Mr Muhammed Bello Adoke SAN can also confirm that by a letter dated
February 28, 2013, COSON had also alerted him about the ploy of the BON
leadership.
In the letter, COSON had asked the Attorney General of
the Federation to investigate how the leadership of Broadcasting Organization
of Nigeria (BON), led by a paid employee of the Federal Government, Malam Abubakar
Jijiwa, is taking active steps to
truncate the criminal trial of the unapproved MCSN and six of its
officials which trial is being conducted by the Nigerian Copyright Commission
(NCC), an agency of the Federal Government.
COSON believes that the time has come to ask Malam
Jijiwa to step aside as Director-General Of Voice of Nigeria. His open affront on
the policies and decisions of the government paying his salaries are baffling and
inexplicable and the fire he is allowing himself to be used to stoke can lead
to consequences that the Nigerian nation will regret. Serious members of BON
also need to get clear answers as to what is being done in their name and whose
interest, their Executive Secretary, Mr Segun Olaleye is serving. For instance,
it will be necessary to establish who called and who attended the ‘emergency
meeting’ where it was decided that free Nigerians who have committed no offence
should be banned from the airwaves of their nation.
The unenforceable threat issued by the BON leadership
is a most childish and silliest announcement for an organization that wishes to
be taken seriously. It has made BON the laughing stock of the world. Sadly,
Jijiwa and Olaleye have allowed BON to become the megaphone of the unapproved
MCSN being prosecuted by the Federal Government of Nigeria for various criminal
offences. They have also become willing tools in the hand of an emperor who believes that because he has
established a number of broadcast stations, he is now bigger than Nigeria and
above the law. This needs to stop immediately.
COSON hereby assures all its members
and affiliates that Nigeria is not a banana republic and that no one can stop
them from being heard in their country. COSON’s dedication to the progress of
the Nigerian nation remains unshaken. We remain committed to using the
instruments of the law to fully defend the rights of creative people in Nigeria
and to promote the Nigerian nation to the world. We will not be intimidated and
will never act outside the law. We are committed to ensuring that musicians
walk tall in Nigeria and earn a decent living for their work. We will do what
is necessary to ensure that our industry offers gainful employment to the
thousands of our countrymen who roam the streets today aimlessly. We will work
night and day, without fear or favour, to continue to promote the spirit of the
COSON slogan, ‘Let the music pay!’
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