Copyright
By Taiye Baiyerohi
Lagos, May, 14, 2018 (NAN) Mr Mayowa Ayilaran, the Managing Director, Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN), has advised Nigerian musicians to report all forms of copyright infringements to the appropriate authority instead of doing so on the social media.
Ayilaran told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos that reporting such cases to the relevant authorities would help it to quickly resolve some of the areas of contentions among those involved.
He said he had to make the appeal because of the allegations recently levelled against Simisola Ogunleye Known as “Simi” and Augustine Miles called “Tecno’ by Victor Uwaifo and Danfo Drivers music group
NAN reports that Uwaifo had lodged his complaint in a section of the media that Singer Simi was in trouble for stealing his intellectual property titled, ‘Joromi’.
Uwaifo who released the hit song ‘Joromi’ in 1969 said the song, which brought him fame and fortune, had now become a victim of intellectual property theft.
He said that Simi failed to give credit to him when she released her own version in 2017.
Also, Danfo drivers, a music group of Mad Melon and Mountain Black, accused Tecno of intellectual theft.
He alleged that he sampled their song, “Kpolongo” in his latest hit song, ‘Jogodo’ without their consent or even reaching out to them.
The duo said they were entitled to some royalties from Tecno for such dubious act.
He said that some musicians preferred to complain on the various social media platforms rather than lodge formal complaints with the appropriate authority so that it could be resolved amicably.
According to him, neither Victor Uwaifo nor Danfo Drivers reported the infringement cases of their artistic works to the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria.
“We call on all registered musicians on our platform to report every case of infringement on their works to us so that we can wade in and resolve them.
“Reporting to the appropriate authority will help in curbing subsequent infringements because when they see how these cases are settled, no musician will want to do such again.
“Complaining on social media platforms will only bring about rancour and disunity amongst musicians.
“As I speak with you, we have not received any formal complaint from either Uwaifo or Danfo Drivers,” he said.
Ayilaran said that for subsequent infringements, artistes should endeavour to lodge formal complaints to the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria.
He said this would enable the society to work out the modalities on how royalties could be paid to the original owner of such songs or lyrics.
He said musicians should know that using the same music title by another musician does not translate to copyright infringement.
He, however, advised musicians to study more so as to understand what copyright infringement means. (NAN)
PTB/BOLA/PAD
=============
Edited by Bola Akingbehin/Peter Dada