Today, I beg to transcend beyond the realms of Nigeria, into the far far away empire of the United Kingdom (UK) where the Digital Economy Bill has recently been given the force of law. This Bill was borne out of the Digital Britain Report which set out the Government’s ambition to secure UK’s position as one of the world’s leading digital knowledge economies. This report included over 80 recommendations, and the Digital Economy Bill delivers on those that require primary legislation.
Amongst other issues, the Bill is an attempt to tackle copyright infringement through music file-sharing. The Bill proposes the notorious “three strikes and you’re out” policy for individuals suspected of engaging in illegal music file sharing, this requires ISPs to temporarily disconnect the internet connection of such individuals after repeat warnings. The Bill also requires that ISPs disclose personal information of subscribers who are suspected of engaging in this illegal music file sharing. Failure of the ISPs to comply with this requirement will be met with the payment of a fine.
This new role of ISPs as “Jedi Knights” of the internet has come under serious criticism from various quarters. For me, I just have 2 main issues with these proposals:-
• In instances where subscribers use music file sharing technology on their networks, ISPs merely act as conduits pursuant to article 12 of the electronic commerce directive (eCD, which is the EU Directive regulating the liabilities of ISP). The proposed legislation in requiring ISPs to take action against an alleged unlawful file sharer would be offending Art. 15 of the eCD which provides a “no obligation to monitor” content. The main idea for enacting the “No general obligation” created under this provision was the concern that the effect of Arts 12-14 of the eCD (which deals with specific instances such as conduit, caching and hosting where ISPs would be exempt from liability) would be seriously weakened if ISPs were required to monitor content on their platforms. Also, the effectiveness of technical controls employed in the disconnection of music file shares is also called into question when the serious infringers would resort to encryption devices in order to evade detection within an anonymous file sharing environment thus making it difficult to identify them.
• Copyright versus Privacy Right: Does copyright overshadow all other rights in UK legal other? This question becomes relevant when taking into consideration the requirement that ISPs disclose personal information concerning users of music file sharing technologies on their networks in order to prosecute copyright infringement claims. Art. 5 (1) of EU’s electronic privacy directive provides:
Member States shall ensure the confidentiality of communications and the related traffic data by means of a public communications network and publicly available electronic communications services, through national legislation…
This provision reinforces the protection of the confidentiality of communications from interception or even disclosure to any party. This guarantee given to the protection of personal data has also been upheld by the European Court of Justice in the context of civil proceedings for the enforcement of copyright in the case of Promusicae v. Telefónica de España SAU, the question before the court was whether the EC Directives require member states impose obligations to disclose personal data in order to protect copyright works. The court held inter alia:
In the light of all the foregoing, the answer to the national court’s question must be that Directives 2000/31, 2001/29, 2004/48 and 2002/58 do not require the Member States to lay down, in a situation such as that in the main proceedings, an obligation to communicate personal data in order to ensure effective protection of copyright in the context of civil proceedings…
This pronouncement coming from the ECJ no doubts put paid to the protection of the personal information of users of electronic communications services.
Me thinks that rather for the UK government to legislate on the illegality of music file sharing, its use should have been converted to a revenue generating business model where all the parties involved benefit. For the owners of the musical works, they are duly compensated and for the music file sharers (like me), we would be enjoying unfettered access to our favorite songs. Whether the authorities in UK or the music industry likes it or not, music file sharing is here to stay.
For music file sharers in the UK, it seems that (as Master Yoda of Star Wars will likely say too) “file sharing is the path to disconnection”. Music file-sharing leads illegal downloading and uploading, illegal downloading and uploading leads to copyright infringement. Copyright infringement leads to disconnection.
PS: Last Saturday in Lagos, the New Nigerian singing band, Jukebox, was declared winner of the 2010 edition of Nigerian music talent hunt show, Star Quest. The six-man band, made up of Eghosa Frank (drummer), Joshua Itietie (lead guitar), Agunpopo Josephine Olamide (vocalist), Wilson Emeka (vocalist), Epanty Gregory (keyboardist) and Asindi Sam (bass guitar) beat the last bands standing to grab the N7.5 recording contract, brand new band bus, N3.6M cash prize and a home in Lagos. Jukebox earned a total of 19873 votes while the other two bands Sapphire Blue and Ace Vibes got 15480 and 11719 respectively. The band now goes on to join D‘ Accord (2006), D‘ Jewels, (2007), Diamonds (2008), and The Pulse (2009) in the Star Quest ‘hall’ of fame.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Nigerian WebRadio= Internet Radio Stations, Music Webcasts and the Nigerian Copyright Act
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
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
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!
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