 |
| Tony Okoroji |
Chairman, Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), Chief Tony Okoroji
has said that the payment of DSTV subscription by hotel and restaurant owners
in Nigeria is not the same as payment for music copyright. He made this known
while addressing a cross section of the press at the recent licensing agreement
signing ceremony between COSON and MultiChoice Nigeria, operators of DSTV, which took place at the
exquisite Oriental Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Said Chief Okoroji, “I am informed that someone has misled owners
of hotels, restaurants and similar public establishments that the payment of
their DSTV subscription authorizes them to freely play music to their customers
and to the general public. There is no better place to state publicly that the
payment of subscription to receive the first class signals from DSTV is not the
same as a copyright licence to communicate music and sound recordings to the
general public. Hotels, restaurants and similar establishments which have not
done so should get in touch with COSON without delay”. Chief Okoroji also
clarified that individuals who subscribe to DSTV and do not use the
subscription in a business or public setting need no copyright licence for the
full enjoyment by themselves, families or friends of the music and sound
recordings received.
Speaking on the licensing agreement with COSON, Managing Director
of MultiChoice Nigeria, Mr. John Ugbe said, “As a Pan-African organization that
is dedicated to ensuring that Nigeria becomes a leader in entertainment in the
continent, this partnership with COSON will only help in driving that leadership
for Nigerian content even more on DSTV and the rest of the platforms which we
have. I am very proud to state that as MultiChoice, we value intellectual
property and we have always been ensuring that artistes get paid for their
content. Through our sister company, we have invested over 200M USD buying
Nigerian content and with this new agreement with music, we can only grow from
here. We believe that a labourer deserves his/her wages and in our effort to
renew vibrant talent emerging from Nigeria and the African continent, there is
a need for this kind of partnership. We encourage other organizations to come
onboard and work with structured organizations here”.
Chief Okoroji revealed that the music industry considers the
hospitality industry in Nigeria to be an important partner in exploiting the
huge tourism potentials that exist in our nation for the creation of wealth and
employment in Nigeria. He said that businesses in Nigeria need to understand
that in the new world economy, respect for intellectual property is central to
any sustainable development. Chief Okoroji said, ‘COSON is a very responsible
structured organization and always acts consistent with the law. In most cases,
the licence for music copyright in hotels is so very small, it comes to less
than 0.3% of what the customer pays for a room. Some people are making a
mountain out of a molehill. This is not the kind of money that will in any way
hurt the hotel industry or drive away a customer from a hotel yet rather than
work constructively with COSON as a partner, some people want to precipitate an
unnecessary crisis between the music and hotel industries in Nigeria’
The COSON Chairman said that he had been informed that someone had
asked some hotel owners not pay copyright royalties to COSON, promising them
protection. According to Chief Okoroji, ‘That person is not the National
Assembly and cannot change Nigerian law and is certainly in no position to ask
hotels in Nigeria to ignore our laws and exploit the private works of
individual Nigerians for free, something not done in any other country. That
person does not compose any songs neither does he have any recording studio.
The music we enjoy costs a lot of money to make and it is through the payment
of royalties that some of that investment is recouped. When push comes to
shove, everyone will learn to their surprise that despite the many challenges
of the Nigerian nation, the law still works in Nigeria’.
Chief Okoroji, a well known intellectual property advocate across
Africa, noted that next to broadcast stations; hotels, restaurants and night
clubs are the next major users of music in the country and found it
incomprehensible that these categories of music users will constantly look for
reasons to escape compensating the people who toil, invest their talents and
procure the scarce resources to create the entertainment that sustains their
businesses.
He advised all public and commercial users of music not “to wait
for a big law suit before they contact COSON and obtain their licence to use
music in public”.
Present at the event were Mr. Matthew Ojo who represented the
Director General, Nigerian Copyright Commission and Mrs. Ijeoma Theo Obodo,
representative of the Director General, National Broadcasting Commission. Also
present were Dr. Adewale Ayuba, Azeezat Allen and Mr. Joel Ajayi, all members
of the COSON Board.
No comments:
Post a Comment