Q: Hello Ms. Tarja Koskinen – Olsson, we are delighted
to have you in Nigeria and here at the COSON Headquarters.
A: Thank you. I must say; I am delighted to be back in
Nigeria. I really love the drive you have in this country.
Q: Thank you for that ma. How do you rate the growth
of COSON since inception? Progressive? As compared with the CMO’s of other
countries?
A: When I first made contact with the people who are
driving COSON today, there didn’t exist any COSON and that’s in 2009. So in a
very few years, COSON has been capable of starting the operations, that is
getting the money in and getting the money out to the rights holders to whom it
belongs, in my view, COSON has been rapid in development. I think your success
criteria is being capable of convincing all the music stakeholders, be them
composers, song writers, performers or record producers to put their acts
together, that isn’t self evident in every country. So COSON has being really
fortune to be able to do this and provide viable service for the users.
Q: Exactly what brings you to Nigeria?
A: I am here on behalf of a Norwegian Copyright Development Association and its task is to make creativity foster in developing countries. For creativity to foster you need a strong copyright protection act, you need organisations like COSON to put that protection into practise because only with the law nothing happens, it remains on a piece of paper, you need organisations like COSON making the copyright system function. I am also here for the training of new officials in the organisation together with a newer organisation called the AVRS (Audio Visual Rights Society of Nigeria) how to do the copyright business, so that money comes in and money goes out.
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| Cross section of some COSON and AVRS officials |
Q: On a personal note, why have you remained in the Copyright
and Intellectual Property field for so long. What motivates you to keep going?
A: I have said time and again and I am privileged to
say it again, I have 2 passions in my life; People and Copyright. People come first because they are the ones who
make the wonderful music, do the great movies and write the books and so on and
Copyright is for me a good tool to
enhance their living possibilities,
making more music, more films and also assisting the creative industries to
make money for the whole society.
Q: What do you make of the line of thoughts that usage
of creative works is a means of promotion for the creative mind and so payments
need not be made?
A: That line of thought comes everywhere; it is not
only in Nigeria. Radio stations all over the world think they are the biggest
promoters of music and sometimes one needs to tell the story to them that first
of all without an organisation like COSON, they’d need to get the rights from
thousands or millions of right holders all over the world or alternatively stop
playing music because there is no legal obligation for the stations to play
music nor the shops nor restaurants or wherever it is being deployed. They have
chosen to play music because that is what the listeners want or needed for the
ambiance. It adds value to the business, and whatever is valuable to your
business should be paid for. The shop keeper needs to pay for the rent of the
premises but if they dislike paying for the music, it’s easy, they should
switch off the music and see the result.
Q: You’ve seen the birth of COSON and you’ve witnessed
its growth. Looking at COSON in 5years, what heights do you see COSON attaining?
A: I’d like COSON to be the most successful collective management organisation on this continent. Nigeria has the largest population with about 170million people and Nigeria has a tremendously thriving music industry, so you have all the ingredients in becoming the number 1 organisation in collection and distribution of royalties on the continent. That’s where I’d like COSON to be.
Q: Thank you so much for your time ma.
A: A pleasure. Thank you.
Photo credit: Google search & COSON
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