I love music, more importantly I love Nigerian Music. That’s how I found myself on www.nigerianwebradio.com the website for Nigerian WebRadio. For those of you who don’t know, Nigerian WebRadio, it is owned and operated by Virgo Visions Media, Inc. based in Houston, Texas, U.S.A.
Amongst the many obvious taglines from this website is “100% Nigerian music, 24/7” which stands out. Well this statement is quite explanatory as I found out sooner (than later).
The efforts of the management of this Internet Radio Station is really commendable in “creating a radio station broadcasting to the Nigerian Diaspora”
My main concern here is the copyright issues that must have been attended to by the owners before setting up this venture.
As “Musical works” are eligible for protection under section 3(1) of the Nigerian Copyright Act (Ch. 69, LFN 1990). A right earned by virtue of this eligibility with respect to musical works is pursuant to section 5(1)vii which states:
Broadcast or communicate the works to the public by a local speaker or any other similar device
The import of this statutorily provision is that only owners (or licensees) of original musical works are legally authorized to “communicate the work to the public” or broadcast it by means of any device.
In essence, this means that Nigerian WebRadio must have expended a considerable amount of effort in securing from the original owners of the musical works (as unfortunately, there is yet to be a collective management organization licensed to operate by the Nigerian Copyright Commission ) the rights to broadcast these musical works.
Since, Virgo Visions Media is located in the United States of America (USA), this must have been one hell of an effort.
Me continues to think whether the same method of royalty for music streaming in the USA applies in Nigeria. In the USA model, both the blanket license obtained from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) not only covers the public performance rights to the underlying music composition-the song itself-over-the air-broadcast. For internet broadcast, there is an additional royalty paid to the company called “SoundExchange”. This royalty is supposed to compensate the performers featured in a recorded piece of musical work.
Whether it is the same model that applies in Nigeria is a question for another day as the Copyright Commission (NCC) is yet to give authorization to any Collective Management Organization (CMO).
If Nigerian WebRadio is working without recourse to the necessary authorization from Nigeria, it would be only for a short while as the NCC will soon release the name(s) of authorized CMOs in Nigeria.
Whatever the case maybe, I continue to commend the efforts of Nigeria WebRadio as I am currently listening to “Darey” in “Dance with me ft. Kunzo and Don P”. More powers goes to the elbows of Virgo Visions Media.
PS: Nigerian twin act, “psquare” won the KORA awards for 2010 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Along with this award came a million USD, remind me next time to start taking a music lesson
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
JAMENDO: SIMPLY A “CREATIVE COMMONS” IDEA
My visit yesterday to the online music platform “Jamendo” educated me on the prospects and benefits of licensing musical works under the Creative Commons (CC) License.
As musical works are protected under National Copyright Laws, licensing these works under the CC license allows owners of musical works to communicate to the using public which rights they wish to retain/reserve and which right they wish to waive (whether it be the right to copy or reproduce, the right to distribute, the right to adapt or create derivative works or the right to communicate to the public or share). The whole idea behind the CC model is to create a flexible system of copyright rules that minimizes the effect of an already existing regime of restrictive copyright protection.
The CC model provides a platform enabling a digitally creative (music) culture by facilitating the remixing and reusing of original creative works. This model strives to attain 3 goals: - (1) simplifying the process for creators to share their creations, (2) creating licenses that would be legally valid and enforceable in a law court and (3) using the internet as an avenue where creative people could easily access and share their works.
Though a quick search on the Jamendo platform turned up no results for Nigerian Artistes or Nigerian Album, there are 32,000 albums available, all the music is free to download and licensed under one of the 6 CC licenses:- (1) Attrition, which lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation., (2) Attrition Share Alike, which lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms, (3) Attrition No Derivatives, which allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you , (4) Attrition Non Commercial, This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms, (5) Attrition Non-Commercial Share Alike, this license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms and (6) Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives, often called the “free advertising” license because it allows others to download your works and share them with others as long as they mention you and link back to you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.
These licenses in effect authorizes the downloading, copying and sharing, as well as the modification and commercial use of the (musical) works licensed under the CC model.
A common motivation for artists licensing under this model was illustrated in a 2006 survey carried out by openbusiness.cc of some artistes in the UK on their perception of copyright, creativity and the CC model. Majority of the responses indicated a negative attitude towards the current copyright regime with some citing that CC licenses are “practical tools for remixing and adaptation”, and CC licenses are rooted in a “desire to exploit network effects” and “better market creative works”.
With the proliferation of new communications technologies especially the internet, me thinks that the Jamendo business model not only encourages (re)creativity but grants to an artiste additional exposure hence promoting both his music and career on a global scale.
Another offering from the Jamendo stable is the “Jamendo PRO”, this unique service licenses a repertoire of musical works at a minimal price to individuals and business for a variety of purposes. With this particular service acting as an online clearing portal where musical rights are cleared, the current role of Collective Management Organizations seems to be rendered redundant.
In all the Jamendo model seems to be the ideal option for artiste seeking worldwide recognition as this could lead to more performance engagements (generally musicians make the most of their income from performances). For musical works licensed under the CC on Jamendo’s platform, this builds on our digital culture by encouraging the sharing of creative ideas/works and the further creation of derivative works in the music arena. This no doubt contributes to our current music literature.
In the words of CC founder, Lawrence Lessing:
"Digital technologies, tied to the Internet, could produce a vastly more competitive and vibrant market for building and cultivating culture; that market could include a much wider and more diverse range of creators; those creators could produce and distribute a much more vibrant range of creativity; and depending upon a few important factors, those creators could earn more on average from this system than creators do today—all so long as the [creators] of our day don’t use the law to protect themselves against this competition"
PS: Did you know that British R & B artiste Jay Sean licensed the song “Tonight” with Jamendo under the Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license, translated, it means that you are only allowed to download but not to modify the original work, if you’re interested in remixing original musical works, visit Jamglue which contains a repertoire of some songs (including those from Nigerian artistes) licensed under CC’s Attrition but beware, some of the songs may not have been authorised by the original author!
As musical works are protected under National Copyright Laws, licensing these works under the CC license allows owners of musical works to communicate to the using public which rights they wish to retain/reserve and which right they wish to waive (whether it be the right to copy or reproduce, the right to distribute, the right to adapt or create derivative works or the right to communicate to the public or share). The whole idea behind the CC model is to create a flexible system of copyright rules that minimizes the effect of an already existing regime of restrictive copyright protection.
The CC model provides a platform enabling a digitally creative (music) culture by facilitating the remixing and reusing of original creative works. This model strives to attain 3 goals: - (1) simplifying the process for creators to share their creations, (2) creating licenses that would be legally valid and enforceable in a law court and (3) using the internet as an avenue where creative people could easily access and share their works.
Though a quick search on the Jamendo platform turned up no results for Nigerian Artistes or Nigerian Album, there are 32,000 albums available, all the music is free to download and licensed under one of the 6 CC licenses:- (1) Attrition, which lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation., (2) Attrition Share Alike, which lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms, (3) Attrition No Derivatives, which allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you , (4) Attrition Non Commercial, This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms, (5) Attrition Non-Commercial Share Alike, this license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms and (6) Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives, often called the “free advertising” license because it allows others to download your works and share them with others as long as they mention you and link back to you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.
These licenses in effect authorizes the downloading, copying and sharing, as well as the modification and commercial use of the (musical) works licensed under the CC model.
A common motivation for artists licensing under this model was illustrated in a 2006 survey carried out by openbusiness.cc of some artistes in the UK on their perception of copyright, creativity and the CC model. Majority of the responses indicated a negative attitude towards the current copyright regime with some citing that CC licenses are “practical tools for remixing and adaptation”, and CC licenses are rooted in a “desire to exploit network effects” and “better market creative works”.
With the proliferation of new communications technologies especially the internet, me thinks that the Jamendo business model not only encourages (re)creativity but grants to an artiste additional exposure hence promoting both his music and career on a global scale.
Another offering from the Jamendo stable is the “Jamendo PRO”, this unique service licenses a repertoire of musical works at a minimal price to individuals and business for a variety of purposes. With this particular service acting as an online clearing portal where musical rights are cleared, the current role of Collective Management Organizations seems to be rendered redundant.
In all the Jamendo model seems to be the ideal option for artiste seeking worldwide recognition as this could lead to more performance engagements (generally musicians make the most of their income from performances). For musical works licensed under the CC on Jamendo’s platform, this builds on our digital culture by encouraging the sharing of creative ideas/works and the further creation of derivative works in the music arena. This no doubt contributes to our current music literature.
In the words of CC founder, Lawrence Lessing:
"Digital technologies, tied to the Internet, could produce a vastly more competitive and vibrant market for building and cultivating culture; that market could include a much wider and more diverse range of creators; those creators could produce and distribute a much more vibrant range of creativity; and depending upon a few important factors, those creators could earn more on average from this system than creators do today—all so long as the [creators] of our day don’t use the law to protect themselves against this competition"
PS: Did you know that British R & B artiste Jay Sean licensed the song “Tonight” with Jamendo under the Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license, translated, it means that you are only allowed to download but not to modify the original work, if you’re interested in remixing original musical works, visit Jamglue which contains a repertoire of some songs (including those from Nigerian artistes) licensed under CC’s Attrition but beware, some of the songs may not have been authorised by the original author!
Friday, April 2, 2010
MAGA NO NEED PAY: NOW, (CYBER)CRIME HAS A NEW ENEMY, AND JUSTICE HAS A NEW VOICE
Listening to the song “Maga no need pay” performed by a group of young Nigerian artistes, I realized the endemic nature of cybercrime in the Nigerian society. The song’s underlying theme is to discourage cybercrime especially internet scams among young Nigerians.
Recently, Nigeria has acquired an (un)popular global reputation as home for scam artistes popularly known in Nigeria as “419” (named after section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with obtaining money under false pretences: - Advance Fee Fraud).
So notorious was this that Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, Microsoft Nigeria, Microsoft Internet Safety, Security and Privacy Initiative of Nigeria, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Nigeria anti-cybercrime agency) teamed up with young artistes on an all out campaign against the scourge of cybercrime.
The result: - “Maga no need pay”, literally translated the title means scam suckers don’t have to pay on the scam, this is the underlying aim of any scam, to get the sucker to part with his money.
Well, the fight against cybercrime just got creative in Nigeria
See the video via this link
PS: Did you know that Puerto-Rican Pop singer Ricky Martin has “come out of the closet”, in his words “I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am, these years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn’t even know existed.” I guess that must have been a load off his shoulder. I have got to look out for his upcoming tour, I’m his #1 fan.
Recently, Nigeria has acquired an (un)popular global reputation as home for scam artistes popularly known in Nigeria as “419” (named after section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with obtaining money under false pretences: - Advance Fee Fraud).
So notorious was this that Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, Microsoft Nigeria, Microsoft Internet Safety, Security and Privacy Initiative of Nigeria, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Nigeria anti-cybercrime agency) teamed up with young artistes on an all out campaign against the scourge of cybercrime.
The result: - “Maga no need pay”, literally translated the title means scam suckers don’t have to pay on the scam, this is the underlying aim of any scam, to get the sucker to part with his money.
Well, the fight against cybercrime just got creative in Nigeria
See the video via this link
PS: Did you know that Puerto-Rican Pop singer Ricky Martin has “come out of the closet”, in his words “I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am, these years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn’t even know existed.” I guess that must have been a load off his shoulder. I have got to look out for his upcoming tour, I’m his #1 fan.
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