COSON CHAIRMAN, CHIEF TONY OKOROJI, TALKS ON COLLECTIVE ADMINISTRATION AT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWYERS MEETING

The Intellectual Property Law Association of Nigeria (IPLAN) held its monthly meeting on Monday, September 27, 2010 at the Lagos Boat Club. Prominent firms like: Chris Ogunbanjo & Co., Chief G. O. shodipo & Co., Banwo & Ighodalo, George, Ikoli & Okagbue, Aluko & Oyebode, Alex Morka & Co., Agabi, Shinaba, Ogon & Co., etc were represented at the meeting.

IPLAN had as guest speaker, Chief Tony Okoroji, Chairman Copyright Society of Nigeria Ltd/Gte (COSON) who delivered a paper on “THE MONOPOLY POWERS OF A COLLECTIVE MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION UNDER THE NIGERIAN COPYRIGHT ACT”. Below is the text of Chief Okoroji’s Lecture.

“THE MONOPOLY POWERS OF A COLLECTIVE MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION UNDER THE NIGERIAN COPTRIGHT ACT” BEING TEXT OF LECTURE BY CHIEF TONY OKOROJI, CHAIRMAN, COPYRIGHT SOCIETY OF NIGERIA (COSON) TO THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (IPLAN) - LAGOS – MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2010.

When I discussed this lecture with Mr. Femi Fajolu, the agreed title was “The Development of Collective Administration of Copyright in Nigeria”. I have since thought about the title especially as I have already undertaken a detailed discussion of the evolution of collective administration in Nigeria which can be found in my book, Copyright, Neighbouring Rights & the New Millionaires. My belief is that everyone here who is serious about intellectual property and its circumstances in Nigeria ought to have read the book but for those of you who may not have, I suggest that you examine pages 191to 206 where I discussed such moments in time as the Old PRS Era, the Giwa Agency, the Birth of MCSN, the PMAN Era, the PMAN/FRCN Crisis, PERON –the Society that Never Was, the Birth of PMRS, etc.

Since all of the above are in print and easily accessible to everyone, I thought that this audience is better served by changing the agreed title and dealing with a more current issue which you may say is still hot, fresh and smoking.  

There is no confusion here as to who to blame if the change is unpalatable. I take full responsibility for the new title which is “The Monopoly Powers of a Collective Management Organization under the Nigerian Copyright Act”

On May 20, 2010, the Nigerian Copyright Commission announced the approval of Copyright Society of Nigeria Ltd/Gte (COSON) as the nation’s sole copyright collective management organization for musical works and sound recordings. By that announcement, COSON joined Reprographic Rights Organization of Nigeria (REPRONIG) which has been the sole copyright collective management organization for literary works in Nigeria. The COSON approval received wide jubilation from music industry stakeholders across the country. Quite a bit of champagne was popped to celebrate what many of us consider a historic event.

Maybe as a result of the checkered history of collective administration of copyright in our nation, I have been asked over and over again how the COSON approval was pulled off. People have asked me how much it cost. I have even read tales in newspapers where the development was said to be the product of corruption and my immediate questions were who is the corrupter in this case and who is the corrupted and what do they both stand to gain in this game of corruption?

COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji

I was intimately involved in the processes leading to the approval of COSON and I can say without equivocation that the only money that changed hands was the sum of N250,000.00 paid to the NCC for which an official receipt was given as required under the CMO regulations. I believe that our refusal to be daunted by the so called Nigerian factor, the consistency of our arguments and the credibility and tenacity of our team all contributed to the COSON approval. The emergence of the Nigerian Music Industry Coalition played a huge role because for the first time in the history of the industry, nine key national associations, including Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN), Nigerian Association of Recording Industries (NARI), Music Label Owners & Recording Industries Association of Nigeria (MORAN), Association of Music Business Professionals (AMB. PRO), Performing & Mechanical Rights Society (PMRS}, etc, came together to request the approval of COSON.  It gave the application a very big voice. I believe that this is an example of what can be achieved when people put their differences aside and work together.

Let me say that I would have been surprised if COSON was not approved not just because of the quality of the COSON leadership but also because of the wide spread membership of COSON and the first class professional application submitted by COSON to the NCC. With the history of collective management in Nigeria at the back of our minds, we were painstaking and meticulous in preparing our application for approval. Where the demand was for a minimum of 100 members, COSON submitted a membership list of over 1000 names of celebrated Nigerian copyright owners. Each name was backed up not only with the person’s authenticated membership form but also a duly executed deed of assignment. On the whole, about 4000 pages of documents were submitted to the NCC, including documents related to accounting, organizational configuration, international relationships, staff structure, corporate standing, tariff composition, distribution policy, etc. I personally conveyed the documents to Abuja and they were not only submitted as hard copy, the entire application was also set out as a PDF file and several digital copies given to the NCC. Thereafter, the NCC sent a team of seven lawyers to the COSON office in Lagos to cross check the authenticity of every document we submitted and investigate our claims. It was a very thorough process.

In the first two months following its approval, there was great excitement as COSON rolled out a robust public campaign with its now famous slogan, Let the music pay! COSON has held numerous press conferences, public service announcements and copyright training for staff, artistes, senior art journalists and even executives of broadcast organizations. The COSON Stakeholders Forum was held in different parts of the country. Each forum was a unique interactive event between the COSON Board and management, Composers, Performers, Publishers, Label Owners, the Broadcast Industry, the Advertising Industry, the telecoms value added providers, the CD replicating plants, the regulatory authorities, etc, aimed at establishing the relationships between the different stakeholders in a copyright collective management environment.

Simultaneously, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) sent a week long technical mission to COSON which successfully carried out the installation of the WIPOCOS system, the cutting edge technology required by COSON to operate at world class standard and the training of the personnel needed to run the system.

COSON had become an important change agent and everything appeared to be going on perfectly with a brand new and significant copyright institution being built in Nigeria. Even one of the unsuccessful applicants for approval, Wireless Application Services Providers Association of Nigeria (WASPAN) congratulated COSON and began to work closely with the society to build a culture of collective management in Nigeria. Gradually, however articles began to appear in different newspapers questioning the monopoly status of COSON. What was significant was that a number of these articles were clearly syndicated by a propagandist. Even though they were published in different newspapers, sometimes under different bylines, they were, word for word, punctuation for punctuation, the same.

Then, on August 5, a day after a very successful COSON Stakeholders’ Forum in Onitsha, which brought together music industry stakeholders and broadcasting organizations from most of the South-East and South-South, there were reports of a demonstration in Abuja supposedly in protest of the COSON monopoly status and requesting the removal from office of the Director-General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission. A proper review of the Abuja event will show that it was not a spontaneous reaction to anything. It was orchestrated as we know the dramatis personae and their antecedents. It is also clear that over 90% of the demonstrators were really a rented crowd. They were neither music industry stakeholders nor did they have any understanding of the issues. Be that as it may, whether through the front or back door, the monopoly powers of a collective management organization in Nigeria has become an issue worth addressing and I intend to address it.

Musical Copyright Society Nigeria (MCSN) was the first indigenous collective management organization to operate in Nigeria. While MCSN was incorporated on July 20, 1984, it has its roots in the Performing Right Society agency of Giwa &Co which started operations in Nigeria about 1971. Indeed Fatai Giwa, the principal partner of Giwa & Co was one of the two subscribers to the MCSN Memorandum & Articles of Association, the other being a highlife musician, the late Adeolu Akinsanya. MCSN operated from Giwa’s law chambers on Breadfruit Street, Lagos for several years. For a period of 24 years, the Giwa agency and its successor, MCSN operated without competition in Nigeria. They were a monopoly. Even though their monopoly status was not imposed by law, they guarded it jealously.

As President of PMAN, I recall the huge pressure mounted on me about 1990 by the MCSN pair of Fatai Giwa and Mayo Ayilaran not to establish the then proposed Performing Rights Organization of Nigeria (PERON). According to them, a multiple collecting society environment in Nigeria would create too much confusion and would be unworkable. It was this argument that led to the abandonment of the PERON project and the entering into of an MOU between MCSN and PMAN to work together towards one strong collecting society for music in Nigeria. The President of IPLAN, then Mr. Bankole Sodipo, participated in the negotiations and the subsequent agreement and is a living witness to the continuous breach of the agreement at every juncture by the leadership of MCSN. I wish to state that Messrs Giwa and Ayilaran were correct about the confusion that multiple CMOs can cause. It was true in 1990. As we have experienced, it is true today. 

That truism has been recognized in our law. Section 39 (3) of the Copyright Act (Cap 24, LFN 2004) states as follows:-  

The Commission shall not approve another Society in respect of any class of copyright owners if it is satisfied that an existing approved society adequately protects the interests of that class of copyright owners.
There is no way anyone will examine the above provision without coming to the conclusion that the clear intendment of the law is a sole CMO for every class of rights. In other words, it is only in a situation where the sole CMO is proven to have failed can the NCC contemplate the approval of another CMO for the same class of copyright owners.

Having held the position that there was no approved collective management organization for musical works and sound recordings at the time of the recent approval process, it would have been illogical for the NCC to go ahead to approve more than one CMO for that class of owners at the same time. The NCC can only approve one CMO and give that CMO the time and environment to operate and if it then becomes necessary, make an assessment of the effectiveness of the approved CMO after a reasonable period.

Coincidentally, I was a member of the committee that drafted what is now the present section 39 which became part of our law as a result of the 1992 Amendment of the Copyright Act.

You may want to know what mischief was intended to be cured by the said provision. There are so many reasons why Section 39(3) was considered necessary so as to discourage multiple CMOs. Here are some of the reasons:-

1.       Due to the nature of assignments of copyright in the Nigerian music industry, there will be unending battles as to which society controls which repertoire ultimately making the societies ineffective.

2.       The user organizations which are very powerful will play one of the societies against the other thereby weakening the bargaining power of the societies consequently ensuring huge losses to the copyright owners.

3.       The parallel societies with parallel administrative paraphernalia funded by the right holders will drain the income which is supposed to be distributed to the right holders.

4.       The user organizations will have a very convenient reason not to pay royalties, claiming they do not know who to pay to, which has already been widely witnessed in Nigeria

We may want to examine whether the monopoly status of a CMO in Nigeria is an anomaly. Section 39 (2) (a) of the Act makes it clear that a CMO must be a company limited by guarantee. In other words, a CMO must not be a profit making organization. It is not a trading company and issues no shares to anyone. It is like a trust set up for the arts. I have seen in the media what I consider misplaced comparisons of CMOs with profit making organizations like MTN, Zain, Globacom or the banks which are trading organizations set up for profit. A CMO is better compared with other non-profit making national associations like NBA to which most of you in this audience belong, PMAN to which this speaker belongs, the NMA, NUJ, NLC, all of which are monopolies in Nigeria.

What exactly is the trend around the world? The sole CMO model or the one stop shop has become more and more popular around the world because it makes it less burdensome for the users of copyright works to acquire the licence they need to carry on their business. All over the world, CMOs are coming together not only to save costs but because it is unwieldy to have users of music running everywhere to obtain copyright licences they need for their operations.

As you may already know, one of the most well-liked CMOs in the world today, the Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) is the result of the coming together of two earlier CMOs, the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada (CAPAC) and the Performing Rights Organization of Canada (PROCAN). The world renowned London based PRS, the Performing Right Society has lately fused with Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) to form what is in actual fact the sole CMO for performing and mechanical rights in Britain known as PRS for Music. The South African Music Rights Organization (SAMRO) has recently added sound recordings or “Needletime Rights” to its portfolio through its POSA trust.  

In almost every nation in Africa today, the sole CMO model is in place:- SADIA in Angola, ONDA in Algeria, BUBEDRA in Benin Republic, MCSK in Kenya, BURIDO in Cote D’voire, COSGA in Ghana, BGDA in Guinea, COSOMA in Malawi, BUMDA in Mail, BUTODRA in Togo, SOMAS in Mozambique, BBDA in Burkina Faso, etc. Each of these CMOs is either a legal or a de facto monopoly. In the UK, the monopoly status of collecting societies has long been settled by the courts in Performing Right Society v. Edinburgh Magistrates and Performing Right Society v. Thompson.

The sole society model reduces acrimony, reduces aggregate administrative costs, reduces confusion in cases of multiple copyright owners in a work who may otherwise belong to different societies. It has so many advantages that over 80% of the collective management organizations in the world are sole collecting societies.

Is the approval of COSON an imposition by the NCC? For over 15 years, the music industry in Nigeria has struggled with the virus called multiple collecting societies. Much of the instability that has occurred within the industry has its roots in the attempt by one man to convert what should be a public trust into a personal cash cow. In 2000, after several meetings under the PMAN leadership of King Sunny Ade, the leaders of the industry took a firm decision to terminate the multiple collecting society environment and to collapse the existing CMO structures into one collecting society to be called Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) with a broad based board accountable to the entire industry. As earlier stated, the approval of COSON is supported by nine key associations in the music industry. The membership is made up of top Nigerian artistes, young and old cutting across the entire country. The NCC approval of COSON is unquestionably consistent with the law, consistent with the practice in Nigeria with respect to non- profit making national associations and consistent with the request and wishes of an overwhelming majority of the stakeholders.

As shown in this lecture, all the noise about “CMO monopoly” is mere grand standing and posturing. From any corner you look at it, the decision of the Copyright Commission is consistent with Nigerian law. In the approval of COSON, the Director-General of the NCC simply implemented the law. There are those who may not like the situation but the NCC DG is not the National Assembly and cannot change the law to suit any individual preference. If the NCC had acted differently, the commission would have been swarmed with law suits.

Some have even suggested that the sole CMO situation is unconstitutional. I wish to say loudly that the status of an organization like COSON does not in any manner take away the rights of authors to exercise their individual freedom of association. Authors remain free to exercise their freedom of association and can set up as many associations as they wish. These associations however are not allowed to be engaged in the collective management of copyright, which is a regulated activity under the law. The restriction in the existence of multiple CMOs applies to the freedom of trade and not the freedom to form associations. The constitutionality of the regulatory powers of the NCC in the approval of CMOs was of course unsuccessfully challenged by MCSN at the Federal High Court in 2009.

Everyone in the industry is aware that there is a vigorous anti-COSON campaign being waged by the alter ego of MCSN because of the refusal of the government to approve his scheme. He is working day and night to distort every piece of information about COSON so as to give us a bad name. He is determined to find fault with everything we do. His antics are very amusing. He has become so pitifully desperate that he is busy fabricating all kinds of cock and bull stories and spreading them around in the belief that we will be distracted by them and lose focus. Every day he spreads one blatantly false story after another like the Attorney-General of the Federation having reduced the term of the approval of COSON to three months. Yesterday, I read in the papers that I collected N10 million on behalf of Beyonce and Fifty Cents from some mythical individual in a mythical location on a mythical day! If these kinds of tactics had worked in the past, they will not work this time..

This time around, we will not be distracted. We are determined to build a world class collective management structure.  COSON has become a major change agent for an industry that desperately needs change.  Before the emergence of COSON, practically all the structures in the Nigerian entertainment industry had either collapsed or have been terribly weakened by years of bickering and quarreling over mundane things. Everyone is now looking up to COSON. The examples we set are therefore very important. Our corporate governance must remain crisp and our internal democratic practices clearly above board. We have employed some very smart young people as staff to propel the industry to a new level.

COSON has just engaged the General Assembly of Broadcasting Organizations of Nigeria (BON), representing all broadcasting stations in the country, in a historic and successful discussion to break the log jam that has for too long prevented Nigerian musicians from enjoying the fruits of their labour. We are at the forefront of a new and vigorous war against piracy across the country. COSON has also recently appointed one of the most celebrated accounting firms in Nigeria, Olusola Adekanola & Co for the prudent, professional and transparent collection and management of copyright royalties across Nigeria… all in only four months.

COSON is proof that the icons of the Nigerian music industry, those you might call the ‘old school’, can indeed work together successfully with the positive spirit of the new generation of Nigerian artistes to explore new frontiers. The COSON slogan, “let the music pay!” is inspiring stakeholders across the nation and making people in the music industry believe in themselves again and to realize that tomorrow will be better than today. Now, everything is possible. Everywhere in the nation you will hear our voice loud as we put meaning to those sweet words, Let the music pay!

Thank you very much.

THE RANTING OF CHARLES OPUTA - Hon John Ewelukwa Udegbunam  

The Nigerian Music Industry Coalition wishes to reiterate that Mr. Charles Oputa presently does not hold any recognized leadership position of any type in the Nigerian music industry. He is clearly behind times and not conversant with the present thinking in the industry. Charles Oputa has not participated in any of the negotiations and discussions which have taken place in the last one year and which are responsible for the recent stability and positive developments the industry is enjoying. He is not a spokesperson for the music industry and his ranting in no way represents the view or position of the Nigerian music industry. At best, the backward views which he is suddenly promoting without shame in various newspaper and magazine articles represent the desires of those who have employed and paid him to create confusion and scuttle the progress presently being made by the music industry in Nigeria both in the collective management of copyright and the now portent battle against piracy.  

It is clear that Mr. Charles Oputa, the self professed “area farther”, who is willing to do anything to gain publicity, has been deployed to scatter the huge progress presently being made by the music industry in Nigeria. The 60 year old “Charly Boy” who forced his way into the leadership of PMAN destroyed the association and left the music industry in total disarray and confusion is clearly unhappy that without him the industry is achieving the kind of progress he is incapable of promoting. So he is ranting and ranting.  He has ganged up with the enemies of the industry who like him have been feeding fat from the toils of Nigerian artistes. Now they want to tear down COSON, one of the biggest achievements of the Nigerian creative community in years.

The nation cannot forget that this is the same Charly Boy under whose presidency of PMAN, piracy grew and became a hydra headed monster. While the bulk of Nigerian artistes suffered in penury, Charly Boy was allegedly doing multi-million naira deals with the piracy kingpins at Alaba and publicly burning worthless and scrapped CDs to deceive the nation. Today, the Alaba pirates that were untouchable under Charly Boy are being constantly raided, arrested and prosecuted. Less than two weeks ago during a dawn raid, more than 700 CD piracy machines were confiscated from Alaba market. The alleged kingpin of piracy in Alaba, Mr. Tony Onwujekwe is presently facing trial at the Federal High Court in Lagos for the piracy of the works of many Nigerian artistes such as Tu face Idibia, Wande Coal, African China, Buchi, Bracket, Osita Osadebe, Oliver D’ Coque, Olu Maintain, Plantasheun Boyz, etc.
The Nigerian Music Industry Coalition wishes to reaffirm its 100% support of the Federal Government approval of COSON, one of the most important developments in the Nigerian entertainment industry in the last fifty years. In the short period that COSON has been approved, the organization has shown the level of seriousness and professionalism never seen in the industry. While Charles Oputa might not like the decision of the government, it is not expected that the nation will set up a special scheme to satisfy his idiosyncrasy. Mr. Oputa’s desires cannot be superior to those of national music icons like Sir Victor Uwaifo, Evangelist Ebenezer Obey, Onyeka Onwenu, Laolu Akins, Dan Maraya Jos, Christy Essien Igbokwe, 2Face Idibia, Sammie Okposo, Olu Maintain, 9ice, Sunny Neji, Rugged Man, DJ Stramborella, Eddy Remedy, Mr. Kool, 2 Shotz, Baba Dee, Bouqui, Rooftop MCs, Kenny Saint Brown, Keffee, Midnite Crew, Eldee De Don, MI, Azeezat, Jazzman Olofin, KC Presh, X Project, Asha, Konga, African China, Owen Gee, Funmi Adams, Majek Fashek, Daniel Wilson, Alex Zitto, Tony Okoroji, Ras Kimono, Stella Monye, Shina Peters, Wale Thompson, Kollington Ayinla, Adewale Ayuba, Orlando Julius, Dekunle Fuji, Lord of Ajasa, Zoolezoo, Ekwe Original Stereoman, Danfo Drivers, Rhymzo, DJ Jimmy Jatt, Muma Gee, AY. Com, ID Cabassa, Klever J, Zidon Poperella, Terry G, Nomoreloss, W4, Omotola Jolade Ekehinde, Yinka Ayefele, OJB Jezreel, Djinee, Blackface, Chris Ajilo, and more than one thousand other Nigerian artistes from every part of the country who are members of COSON and fully support the action taken by the government.      
Is it a coincidence that the people being targeted for destruction by Charly Boy are the likes of Chief Tony Okoroji, Onyeka Onwenu, Laolu Akins, Sunny Neji and Efe Omorogbe, leaders of the coalition, who have dedicated their lives to changing the Nigerian entertainment industry for the good of all creative people in Nigeria and the nation at large? These patriots have risked their lives to confront the piracy menace and are working everyday to unite Nigerian artistes for a better tomorrow.
The Nigerian Music Industry Coalition wishes to most forcefully point out that irrespective of the desires of Charles Oputa and his ilk, Nigerian law is very clear and must be respected. No one, whether Charly Boy or Charly Man should be allowed to be above the law any more in Nigeria. His open threat on the person of the Director-General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission should not be taken lightly by the law enforcement agents.  
For the avoidance of doubt, the Nigerian Music Industry Coalition is solidly behind Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), a broad based pan Nigerian organization that represents the interest of copyright owners, young and old from every region of our nation.  
Charles Oputa clearly cannot deal with the fact that the music industry has moved on without him. He had a great chance to deal with the Alaba piracy menace which is today being frontally confronted and he did not. He had a chance to deal with the copyright collective management challenges while he held sway at PMAN Headquarters. He did not. Instead, he caused confusion and made money for himself while the rest of the industry suffered. His reappearance as a “lover” of the industry is a joke. His opinion is not needed. He should go away, stay away and leave the music industry alone.  

On behalf of Nigerian Music Industry Coalition

Our notice has been brought to a sudden explosion of articles and advertorials on collective management of copyright published in several Nigerian newspapers. We are not fooled by these articles and adverts. We know who is behind them and in the fullness of time everything that is hidden will come to the open. In any case anybody who is familiar with the way these things work will affirm that the articles and advertorials are syndicated and coordinated.

We have read with particular interest the article with the remarkable title, Royalties... artistes canvass multiple collecting bodies published in a national newspaper of Thursday, February 18, 2010 and another article titled, Still on Collective Management Organization published by the same paper the following day, Friday, February 19, 2010..We are aware of the advertorial published on page 26 of The Guardian of February 15, 2010 with the title, OPEN LETTER NO. 2 TO DIRECTOR GENERAL NCC. We are also aware of similar advertorials in The Guardian of Monday, December 28, 2009 and Daily Trust of the same day, among others. Each of the said articles and advertorials is clearly aimed at stampeding the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) to approve multiple collective management organizations (CMOs) in the Nigerian music industry and continue the existing mayhem. The advertorials have been published under the “banner” of a hitherto unknown group called Concerned Copyright Owners. Anyone can take some time and inspect the advertorials. The fact is that Concerned Copyright Owners which desperately wants to have a major impact on government policy in Nigeria reveals no physical address, no telephone number and not even an e-mail address. What will happen if the NCC wants to respond to this “group“? To what address will the response be sent?

No one familiar with the Nigerian Music industry will tell you that the purported signatories to the Advertorials would have contributed the millions of Naira required to place such full page adverts in several national newspapers to champion such a cause. Indeed, we have spoken to some of the purported signatories who are innocent artistes. It is clear that a number of them did not even know the real facts of the matter for which their names were being used neither did they see the final copy of the advertorials. They were simply hoodwinked by the authors of the adverts to have their signatures scanned upon some advertorials seeking the ‘good’ of the industry.

It is clear that someone operating in the dark is determined to spend a huge amount of money to manipulate the CMO approval process and continue the plundering of Nigerian artistes. Concerned Copyright Owners is unfortunately a purpose built vehicle for a campaign to fool the NCC to go against the law and approve a privately controlled CMO that will be used to continue milking innocent Nigerian artistes. We believe we know who that person is but the question is: Why is he afraid to come out into the open?

On Wednesday, February 10, 2010, “Concerned Copyright Owners” advertized a forum that was to be held at Sparkle Hall, Joel Ogunaike Street GRA, Ikeja. It is common knowledge that serious stakeholders in the industry shunned the forum which was not even attended by the bulk of the purported signatories to the advertorial.

As rightly reported in one of the published articles, for years there has been a protracted tussle between two collective management organizations that had operated in Nigeria under a multiple collecting society environment. The bad blood and confusion caused by the multiple collecting society situation will not be forgotten for a long while. Is it therefore not illogical that the articles and advertorials are in 2010 demanding that the answer to the problem of multiple CMOs is to continue with the same situation that has caused so much confusion? The truth is that while the generality of Nigerian artistes have bled from the confusion, some people have been making money for themselves and of course want the confusion to continue.

With the creation of a vibrant Nigerian Music Industry Coalition in 2009 and the eventual formation of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), the broad based national collective management organization, everything has changed. The once untouchable Alaba pirates are running helter-skelter. As we write, their king is held in a Nigerian jail. Those who have fed fat from Nigerian artistes through a fraudulent collective management system are frightened. They have become desperate and their answer is to stampede the NCC to authorize the continuation of their fraud! Haba!

For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state that there is NO groundswell demand for multiple collecting societies in Nigeria . Nigerian artistes know the meaning of united we stand, divided we fall. They are sick and tired of the divide and rule tactics which has been used to exploit them. From Tuface Idibia to Sunny Neji; from Eldee De Don to MI, from Onyeka Onwenu to Kefee, From Victor Uwaifo to Dan Maraya Jos, Nigerian artistes want peace and unity. The handful of people whose signatures appear on the advertorials and those funding the advertorials from a dungeon constitute a very tiny minority in the music industry. They cannot in any way be said to have superior stake than the over one thousand respected Nigerian practitioners from every part of the nation that have lent their names to the approval of COSON. It also needs to be said that since the emergence of COSON, which belongs to all Nigerian stakeholders, not one person has deserted the society to join “Concerned Copyright Owners” Instead, stakeholders all over the country are joining COSON in droves, wishing to be part of the new big tent and part of the possibilities that a transparent CMO provides.

For those who may argue that in the age of liberalization, the nation deserves more than one CMO for the music industry, we humbly remind them that a CMO is not a profit making organization. It is not a bank and certainly not a phone company. Under Nigerian law, a CMO must be a company limited by guarantee and the Nigerian Copyright Act empowers the NCC to approve only one CMO for each class of rights consistent with the existing situation in many countries around the world. Permit us to repeat what will happen if a system of multiple collective management organizations is officially sanctioned in Nigeria . The CMOs, as we have already experienced for several years, will spend most of their time fighting each other. The users of music will continue to claim that they do not know who controls what and who to pay to and most of them will continue to use music free of charge. The royalties which should be distributed to the stakeholders will be squandered on the building of parallel operational structures and provision of official paraphernalia to the parallel operatives. So as to collect money from each of the CMOs, some of the right owners will continue to assign the same rights to the different CMOs resulting in endless disputes and expensive litigation. Rather than be collectively owned organizations serving the stakeholders, the CMOs will end up as personal properties of their promoters.

We are satisfied that every well meaning person in the music industry in Nigeria has been given adequate opportunity to participate in the process of bringing about a strong collective management organization that finally serves the true stakeholders. Anyone outside the big tent has personally chosen to stay outside and has the opportunity to reconsider his position. It is a new day and the NCC should do the right thing and witness wide jubilation across the country. As said by ace Producer, Mr. Laolu Akins recently, “The days when the industry acted in disharmony are over. We now have a solid coalition. Whether it is Lagos , Ibadan , Onitsha , Aba , Uyo, Jos, Kaduna or Kano , the Nigerian Music Industry Coalition speaks with one voice. We are together”. In a democracy, the minority will have its say and the majority must have its way. Anyone interested in taking on the Nigerian Music Industry Coalition had better be ready.

A collecting society is not a private enterprise over which any individual would hinge his survival (more so at the expense of thousands of others). If right owners have lost billions because of a multiple collecting society model that has failed to work, why would any sincere group of persons insist on not working with others towards a resolution?

The answer is simple. The interest of the general is not quite as important to the "trustees" as they would want us to believe.

With the announced birth of COSON (Copyright Society of Nigeria), or as the seeming rechristening of the Performing & Mechanical Rights Society (PMRS), there appears to be a fresh friction and smirk of undue rivalry among the collective management organization for musical works and sound recordings in Nigeria. And I think that there is the need to look closely into these seeming uncommon grounds among practitioners who should be seen to be interested in expanding the frontiers of collective management of copyright matters in the country. 

Is it that MCSN does not want new entrants? I dialled the telephone number of Halim Mohammed, the Media Officer of Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN), determined to ask this question. He said my call was timely; as the board members of the society were meeting at that time. I drove hastily to their Ikeja office and behold, the calibre of people I saw gave me the mindset that the society couldn't be that cheap and selfish. At the risk of sounding judgemental, I may not know much about Mayo Ayilaran beyond seeing him in the media as Director General of MCSN, I may not even know much about the Orits Wiliki beyond the fact that I like his songs and that he is the Chairman of the Board, but I do know that there are people you are not likely to find in the gathering of hypocrites. One of such persons is Ambassador Segun Olusola, whom I got to know is the patron of the society. Again, I saw other men of the art world like Mathias Obhiagbon, Olumide Abikoye, Engr. Tunde Kuboye. I particularly mentioned the arts world because there are certain things that the arts profession does to its practitioners; a sense of self contentment, a fulfilling sense of creative endeavours, a radical romance with thoroughness and a serious affiliation with immaterialism. These factors differentiate an artist from the commercial and materialistic inclined business man, or the partisan politician and bureaucratic civil servant.

Oritz WIliki

There were also men such as Chief Elegbede Asamu, Professor Segun Alile, Mr. Dele Abu (aka Malaika Showman), Pastor Kola Olulana, Lady Balogun and Zeb Ejiro. But perhaps because I am a layman in the matter of copyright administration, or perhaps because, like they say, a book is not judged by its cover, I have been wrong, I'd like my eyes to be opened to new realities. Ayilaran assuaged my curiosity when he said, the setting up of as many collecting societies as possible is what the industry rightly deserves.

Still driven by my seeming amateur knowledge of copyright administration, I am also attracted to this society for the reason that it is the only one I have witnessed dolling out royalties to right owners. Apart from a few artistes including Tuface that I know received their royalties at one time or the other, I got to know during my visit to MCSN office that even Zakki Azzay does. He stormed the MCSN office angrily after receiving a text message that told him to stop his transaction with the society. Apparently, Zakki who has not enjoyed 'royalty' treatment from any other body but MCSN didn't see why a stranger should ill advise him. It is even a threat.” He said, reading out the SMS to me.  

“You may not receive your due royalties if your work is not registered with XYZ. It's free, call XYZ on XYZ…”

Before Zakki came in, Segun Alile had said to me that if he dies today and comes back one million times over, he would never assign his works to other society but MCSN. That sounded like a great passion. “I will never assign my work to somebody who will jeopardise it. I have over 120 records and I cannot assign one of my works to any other society apart from MCSN. If I go to perform in America today, it is only MCSN that can collect money on my behalf, and they have been doing that.” 

Reflecting on these scenarios, I don't think that what we need in this industry is propaganda. What I think is right at the moment is to broaden the competition and allow right owners to choose which society they want to belong rather than confuse them the more.

Seeing also that a good number of the new generation artistes are members of MCSN, it dawned on me that it must be worth their while, especially knowing that not usually keen on pitching their tents with older artistes. I see MCSN as a common front and platform that needs to explore in the development of the entertainment industry. Same should be for other collecting societies. Competition breeds development; as such, I believe that we need more than one or two collecting societies, not to fight one another but to fight to protect the repertoires of members in their custody.

This to my mind will not only enrich the culture of copyright administration and reassure the international copyright community of the ability of Nigeria to address its challenges, but will also assist the efforts of the government agencies to reduce the scourge of piracy. 

With the long standing pedigree of the society and its affiliation to Performance Right Society (PRS) and the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) both of the United Kingdom among others, I also think that MCSN deserves government support to attain a more laudable height. I'd like to speak so well of other collecting societies like this. But like I said, we have opened a new chapter of discourse on the SCREEN segment and I'll like some one to open my eyes to new realities on why MCSN or any other society should not fly!

Chinedu Chukwuji, COSON Chief Operating Officer

Dear Mr. Akande,

We have read with interest your article with the remarkable title, Copyright Societies and absurd friction published in The Nation of Sunday, October 11, 2009. We wish to thank you for your interest in collective management of copyright, a complex field which many in our country still find extremely confusing. In an environment in which almost everyone claims expertise in subjects they know very little of, we must commend you for openly admitting that your voyage and article may have been driven by your “seeming amateur knowledge of copyright administration”. This is the reason for our belief that if you had tarried a bit in passing judgment and drawing conclusions and investigated deeper and wider, you may have discovered that all that glitters may not really be gold.

Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) is a broad national platform born in a positive spirit which is why we will not ascribe ill motive to anyone except with absolute proof. We do not wish to indulge in the endless finger pointing and blame game that have cost the Nigerian Music industry dearly and led to so much bad blood. Our mission is to create harmony among the stakeholders and to improve their lot. COSON is not a sectional organization so will not discriminate against anyone. Exactly in line with the exultation in your article, COSON has been set up to expand the frontiers of collective management of copyright in the country. Our response in this rejoinder therefore is not aimed at casting aspersions on any one but to place facts on the table which you can easily verify so that both you and your readers can make informed judgment. As you wrote in your article, “a book is not judged by its cover, I have been wrong, I'd like my eyes to be opened to new realities”.

We wish we could avoid the comparison but one of the obvious shortcomings of your article is that you tried to compare two organizations by detailing what you consider the attributes of one while saying nothing about the other. An example is your conclusion that because certain names like Chief Segun Olusola, Mr. Zeb Ejiro and Mr. Mathias Obhiagbon are associated with Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria, MCSN therefore passes your test. At COSON, we hold every creative person in high esteem and that includes the likes of Chief Segun Olusola, Mr. Zeb Ejiro and Mr. Mathias Obhiagbon. We will however like your readers to be the judge if there is any circumstance in which the distinguished Chief Segun Olusola, Mr. Zeb Ejiro and Mr. Mathias Obhiagbon can be said to individually or collectively have more at stake in music copyright than national music icons like Sir Victor Uwaifo, Evangelist Ebenezer Obey, Onyeka Onwenu, Laolu Akins, Dan Maraya Jos and several others from every part of the country who sit on the COSON Board with thousands of hit songs under their control

Also in your article, you mentioned names like Olumide Abikoye, Engr. Tunde Kuboye, Chief Elegbede Asamu, Professor Segun Alile, Mr. Dele Abu (aka Malaika Showman), Pastor Kola Olulana and Lady Balogun as part of the MCSN core that in your opinion gives the society credibility. Once again, we respectfully call on your readers to judge if the aforementioned names (some of whom we had never heard of) can claim any more contribution to music in Nigeria or better interest in music than King Sunny Ade, Christy Essien Igbokwe, Sir Shina Peters, 2 Face Idibia, Sunny Neji, Sammie Okposo, Baba Dee, 9ice, Faze, Mr. Kool, Olu Maintain, Rugged Man, DJ Stramborella, Kollington Ayinla, Sound Sultan and at least a thousand other music stars who are either full members of COSON or who fervently support the COSON concept and are determined that COSON succeeds.

We acknowledge that Oritz Wiliki, who has been Chairman of MCSN for more than ten years, is a well known reggae musician and a one term 2nd Vice President of PMAN but even Mr. Wiliki cannot claim to have more interest in music copyright than Ras Kimono, Majek Fashek Alex Zitto or the many other reggae stars who are members of COSON. It is in the same vain that Mr. Wiliki may not claim more knowledge of the subject than the Chairman of the COSON interim board, Chief Tony Okoroji, a nationally acclaimed song star in his own right, one of the key authors and a major driver of the Nigerian Copyright Law, three term President of PMAN, two term member of the Board of the Nigerian Copyright Commission and an internationally respected author and authority in the field of copyright.

In your article you spoke of your knowledge of 2 Face Idibia and some others receiving some royalties from MCSN. Hundreds of Nigerian artistes have earned royalties running into millions of Naira from PMRS and it was never considered necessary or proper to call a press conference to give them the money which is theirs by right. It is common knowledge that whatever these artistes may have earned either from PMRS or MCSN is a small fraction of what they should earn if the system is working adequately. The issue really is not how much 2 Face was paid by MCSN. The big question is: how much was collected in the name of 2 Face and many others by MCSN and how much can be collected if Nigeria had an effective system? If 2 Face was so happy with the situation in MCSN, do you really think that he would have left MCSN to join COSON like so many others are doing?

We can understand why you may think that multiple collective management organizations and competition are the answer. That is part of the deceptive propaganda that has been thrown around. As been shown by the Nigerian example, multiple collecting societies often lead to endless bickering and little collection. A collective management organization is not a commercial enterprise and not subject to the same rules. A CMO is a unique kind of organization prohibited from making profit. It has long been established around the world that a CMO is stronger if the users of music can obtain their licenses from one source. Indeed one of the major demands of user organizations in Nigeria is that they want a single organization to deal with and that is consistent with Nigerian law. As our colleagues in MCSN know, in many advanced countries in Europe where monopolies are ordinarily not tolerated, their performing rights societies continue to enjoy monopoly status. The often mentioned PRS of London is a monopoly. There is no other recognized performing right organization in the United Kingdom. 

If you were to do an opinion survey of stakeholders in collective management of music copyright in Nigeria, there is no question that a vast majority will tell you that they are terribly frustrated with the situation as it has been. For too long, too much energy has been wasted in unending bickering and schism, fueled by destructive propaganda, that have led friends to be pitched against each other. If you are to investigate further, you will find that there is a groundswell of views that the multiple collecting society model has failed woefully and that it needs to be terminated. Right owners are no longer interested in any more turf wars. Less than 10% of the money available for collection is being collected. Most right owners have gained nothing from collective administration and as a result thousands had for a long time decided to stay away from the system altogether. Meanwhile, the same right owners have been financing two different structures each with its own offices, paraphernalia and managers who continue to earn full salaries and other perks and fuel disputes among colleagues in the industry.

The agreement to set up a broad based national collective management organization into which the existing structures would be collapsed is not recent. That agreement was reached as far back as 2000 at a series of meetings chaired by King Sunny Ade in his capacity as President of PMAN. Our colleagues in MCSN fully participated in those meetings, expressed full support of the decisions taken and participated in choosing the name, Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON). Successive efforts by King Sunny Ade to get MCSN to commit to implementing the agreement were frustrated. That was the reason several persons including Ms. Onyeka Onwenu who used to be an MCSN Director resigned from MCSN.  Many other efforts at implementing the agreement by the Nigerian Copyright Commission were also frustrated. The fact is that while the right owners have continued to suffer, some persons in control of the structures have continued to manipulate the situation and defend the indefensible obviously because they want to maintain their control and the pecks they enjoy.

The recent emergence of the Nigerian Music Industry Coalition may have changed everything. When the coalition was being formed, every known group in the industry including MCSN was invited to participate in the deliberations to fashion a new era for the industry. Every other group showed up apart from MCSN. Rather than participate in this well meaning effort, MCSN decided to mount an unrelenting attack on the coalition. One of the important observations made by the coalition was that the decades of self-seeking disagreements over collective management of copyright had been allowed to poison the industry and to bring it to a stand still. It was therefore decided that the issue must be frontally addressed to stop the bleeding and huge losses to the industry and to create the environment without which other important challenges cannot be addressed.

As part of the process, all known stakeholder groups in Nigeria including MCSN were invited to the table to develop a new architecture for collective management in Nigeria. The overriding objective at all times has been to produce for Nigeria a system that efficiently and effectively serves the interest of the greatest number. Once again MCSN did not show up. At the end of several weeks of consultations and consensus building, it was resolved that the time had come to take the bull by the horn and that urgent steps must be taken to bring about the take off of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) which had long been agreed to by every major stakeholder organization in the industry including MCSN. It was further resolved that the new organization must be fully operational as soon as it is set up in order not to create a vacuum in copyright licensing and that existing structures of collective management and expertise already available in the industry should be utilized.

Following the above resolutions all stakeholder groups were invited to contribute to the take off of COSON. In the search for peace and in the spirit of give and take, the PMRS delegation consented to dismantling their significant structure and finding shelter under COSON even if the new society was to take off using the MCSN platform. This is apart from the many other concessions made by the PMRS delegation. Regrettably MCSN refused to engage and the coalition then decided that enough was enough and that the PMRS platform should be utilized for the take off COSON with an expanded Interim Management Board and a new environment created to allow the thousands outside the system to join.

It is important to note that if the industry was to start afresh to engage in the legal processes of bringing to life a new company limited by guarantee, acquire new office space, employ a complete set of new personnel, provide appropriate training and equipment for the staff, the cost in time and money will be clearly unaffordable to the industry at present. The widespread jubilation across the industry since the take off of COSON is significant evidence that the COSON process represents the will of the stakeholders. Our doors are open to all including those of our colleagues who may still be in MCSN. It is in the same spirit that we extend an invitation to you to visit COSON and familiarize yourself with the work that we are doing.

Best regards.