To create a new environment for the music industry to thrive
in Nigeria, Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) made the following specific
demands on “No Music Day”, September 1, 2016:
1. President Buhari should order the Hon
Minister of Finance and the Attorney-General of the Federation to ensure the
full implementation of the Private Copy Levy scheme
without any further delay.
2. The Nigerian Communications Commission
should make it very clear to all telecommunications companies operating in
Nigeria that henceforth, there will be zero tolerance for the infringement of
the Intellectual Property rights of Nigerian citizens whose works are deployed
by these companies.
3. The Minister of Information
& Culture and the different state Governors should make it clear to all
Federal Government and State owned broadcasting stations respectively, and
other government institutions that there is no provision of the law that
exempts them from the payment of royalties for the musical content broadcast or
deployed by them.
4. The National Information
Technology Development Agency (NITDA) should, as a matter of urgency, be
ordered to take necessary steps to begin the take down of the several pirate
websites bastardizing Nigerian Intellectual Property on the Internet.
5. President Buhari should
instruct the Ministers of Industry, Trade & Investment, and the Minister of
Foreign Affairs to act swiftly to ensure that the brazen and massive piracy of
Nigerian music, movies and literature across our continent are no longer
tolerated.
6. The
Nigerian Copyright Commission should be empowered to pivot towards the
effective implementation of anti-piracy measures in the digital environment.
7. The
National Assembly should act with despatch to ensure the promulgation into law
of the new Copyright Bill which contains several provisions to properly deal
with the infringement of copyright in the digital era.
8. Necessary action should be
taken to get the National Endowment Fund for the Arts up and running so that
there are resources to take care of funding for creative projects and the
welfare of creative people who have fallen into hard times.
No Music Day 2016 may have come and gone but the
reverberations will be heard for a long-long time.
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