THE RIGHT TO BROADCAST MUSICAL WORKS TO THE PUBLIC: COPYRIGHT SOCIETY OF NIGERIA (COSON) AGAINST WOZOBIA & COOL FM.

Thank goodness that COSON the sole Collective Society for musical works has finally been approved by the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) under powers granted in Section 39 of the Copyright Act, 1988.

The Act in Section 39 defines a Collective Society as “an association of copyright owners which has as its principal objectives the negotiating and granting of licenses, collecting and distributing of royalties in respect of copyright works”. The granting of licenses in this definition presupposes that the collective society has already been granted a license by the owner of the musical work and will exercise the copyright in the interest and on behalf of the owner. The need for such an organization has become evident from the challenges encountered in the individual management of these rights. An author of a musical work is not materially capable of monitoring all uses of his works, he cannot for instance contact every single radio or television station to negotiate licenses and remuneration for using his works. In the same vein, it would be an onerous task for a radio station to seek specific permission from every owner of musical works for the right to broadcast or communicate the work to the public which is embedded in Section 6 of the Act and it is for the exclusive enjoyment of the owner. If this were to be the case, then thousands of the owners of musical works would have to be approached for authorizations. The very impracticability of managing these rights both for the owners and for the users of these musical works leaves a vacuum which needs to be filed by the collective society.

Enter COSON which has been accusing Wazobia & Cool FM radio stations of infringing Section 6 of the Act by broadcasting musical works to the public without the authority of the owner or COSON. In the words of Chief Tony Okoroji, the Chairman of COSON, “Other users of music across the country are watching to see how the matter is resolved. It will to a large extent determine what the rights of Nigerian artistes are in their country. It will also determine whether the copyright law has any bite…We are aware that the owners of Cool and Wazobia FM have been running from office to office in Abuja. They are looking for ways to use the power of government to intimidate COSON instead of talking to us [emphasis mine]” The emphasized is exactly my point, why should COSON be waiting to be talked to? Is COSON not aware of the full import of Section 16 of the Act which provides:

“subject to this Act, infringement of copyright shall be actionable at the [instance] of the owner, assignee or an exclusive licensee of the copyright…”

Translated, this provision means that an assignee or an exclusive licensee of copyright has a legal right to sue against copyright infringement, in other words COSON in performing its functions as a collective society, it has the legal status or locus standi to initiate an action in court in exercise or defence of the rights vested in it. This was the opinion of the Court of Appeal in Compact Disc Technology & Ors v. Musical Copyright Society (MCSN) in Appeal No. CA/L787 2008 where the court held that the respondent MCSN:

“…lacks the legal status, or locus standi, to initiate an action in court in exercise or defence of the rights vested in it since it was performing the functions of a collecting society without the prior approval of Nigerian Copyright Commission.”

In concluding, since COSON has been given the breath of life through the instrument of the Act and has been accordingly approved by the NCC under Section 39, then it is competent to maintain an action for Copyright infringement against Cool & Wazobia FM or any other person. It is instructive to note that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) a collective society in the American movie sector on April 4th, 2011 sued Zediva.com an online move rental store for copyright infringement in violating the studio’s (owners of the right to distribute the movies) exclusive rights of distribution.

PS: Olanrewaju Dabiri popularly known Nigerian Hip hop act known as eLDee in his article “The politics of our time” published on Sahara Reporters disassociated himself from the musical concert Youths rising up for Goodluck Ebele Jonathan supposedly featuring him D’banj and a host of other Nigerian artistes. A true man of integrity he is.