Our attention has been drawn to recent public statements, campaign and claims made by the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) on the copyright to musical works used and broadcast in the course of the operations of members of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) and the Independent Broadcasting Association of Nigeria (IBAN).
The Musical Copyright Society Nigeria (MCSN) wishes to state unequivocally that COSON’s statement and campaigns were largely based on false and fraudulent claims aimed at misleading the general public, with a view to whipping up sentiments and hoodwinking the broadcasters and general users of music into entering into payment deals with COSON.
We state further thus:
MCSN still owns and continues to own the copyright in a very large repertoire of music, both Nigerian and foreign, used by the members of BON and IBAN in their broadcasting activities and by users of music generally around the country.
The ownership of these copyright is backed by valid and subsisting agreements, deeds of assignment and contracts of reciprocal representation duly entered into between MCSN and concerned assignors, licensors and creators.
The purported claim of contractual relationship between COSON and any individual Nigerian composer, author or foreign organisation is subject to the outcome of certain cases commenced prior to those purported contractual relationships and pending before the Federal High Court, notably the following:
Suit No. FHC/L/CS/798/10: MCSN & 4 ors vs. Nigerian Copyright Commission & 3 ors, seeking for a judicial review of the decision of the NCC’s refusal of MCSN’s application for approval as a collective management organisation. By the very nature of such action, parties are expected to maintain the status quo ante pending the final determination of the suit.
Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1267/12: MCSN vs. COSON & 6 ors, a class action seeking for COSON (and its predecessor-in-title, PMRS) to account for all the monies it has been collecting on MCSN’s repertoire from 1996 till date. This particular suit and its final decision, being a class action, would affect and bind members of BON and IBAN.
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Suit No. FHC/L/CS/377/13: MCSN vs. COSON & NCC challenging the approval of COSON as a sole collective management organisation on fraudulent representation and in total disregard of the provisions of the Copyright Act, the Copyright Regulations of 2007 and the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. It should be noted that many of the musicians who COSON claims to represent are subsisting members of MCSN who are protesting the fraudulent inclusion of their names in COSON’s membership list.
The decision in all or any of the above cases will most certainly determine which way the members of BON and IBAN and all other public users of music will go in the not-too-distant future.
Meanwhile, MCSN has already secured judgments affirming its constitutional and legal right to operate in the following cases:
Suit No. FHC/L/CS/35/08: MCSN & 4 ors vs. NCC & 4 ors delivered on 25th July 2011.
Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1163/12: MCSN & 7 Ors. vs. NCC & 5 ors delivered on 18th March 2013.
The judgments and the consequential orders made therein are still subsisting.
We are aware that COSON has been issuing threats of legal suits or has actually sued some of the members of BON and IBAN over its (COSON’s) largely false claims; we would be glad to be joined in such actions should any of BON or IBAN members find it necessary.
The question therefore remains that if COSON had already initiated legal proceedings to enforce whatever copyright it claims to have, why resorting to extra-judicial means and self-help in the form of false propaganda and appeal to sentiments with a view to arm-twisting members of BON and IBAN to do its bidding, except as a means to get whatever it can from the broadcasters before the falsehood and frauds are fully exposed?
Aside the ongoing judicial processes, the Nigerian Parliament, through the Joint House Committees on Justice and Judiciary of the House of Representatives recently investigated, through a Public Hearing in which NCC, BON, IBAN, MCSN, COSON and many other stakeholders were well represented, the issue of forced monopoly in the business of copyright collecting societies and the report of the joint House Committees is still being awaited.
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The question to be asked now is, why is COSON not waiting for the outcome of these judicial and legislative intervention in which it is actively participating as an interested party before attempting to railroad BON and IBAN members and the general public to force payments out of them for the music which copyright it does not own or control, if not to grab what it can now before the break of the dawn?
COSON, since its days as PMRS, has been thriving on falsehood and deliberate misrepresentation to deceive people and many broadcasters to get money from them. Most of the monies collected from these users belong to MCSN’s repertoire, which PMRS/COSON has not accounted for till date. This is part of the fulcrum in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/377/13 mentioned earlier. This was also the fact as revealed in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/707/05 between MCSN vs. Vee Networks Limited (Airtel) in which MCSN got a judgment of N100 Million for the infringement of MCSN’s copyright in the musical work titled “Everything I do, I do it for You” on which PMRS had earlier fraudulently collected royalty.
COSON claimed that it distributed N100 Million in 2012, but the public is yet to know who gets what from the N100 Million or how much did COSON collect for the year out of which it distributed N100 Million. Even some acclaimed members of COSON are shouting “blue murder” as they claim that musicians’ monies were shared out to those who are not musicians and those whose music were not even played in the last 10 years! MCSN’s members and affiliates whose music form the bulk of the music on which COSON collected royalties in 2012 out of which the N100 Million was purportedly shared did not receive any account or money from COSON and COSON expects this fraud to go on unchallenged and the broadcasters should continue to pay!
MCSN has not abandoned the copyright which it duly and legally acquired before the “arrangee” emergence of COSON, which has been operating as the Performing and Mechanical Rights Society of Nigeria (PMRS), and intends to make appropriate legal claims at the appropriate time, employing the rule of law and following due process.
We are therefore using this medium to advise caution in any dealing which the public may be having with COSON with respect to copyright in musical works broadcast on BON and IBAN members’ stations.
Finally, it must be noted that the use of music by broadcasters and any other person or organisation is like buying goods and services from the open market and the broadcasters and other users of music are free to choose which or whose music they broadcast or use, either from MCSN’s or COSON’s repertoires or several other Nigerian artistes who are neither MCSN nor COSON affiliates.
Released by Orits Williki
Chairman MCSN.
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