By Anthonia Soyingbe/Lagos
Okorji, COSON Chairman.
The Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) on December 2013 banned the airing of Musical works of over 100 Nigerian music super stars over copyright controversy.BON which is mostly made up of private television and radio stations claimed that the action was in solidarity with the Independent Broadcasting Association of Nigeria, (IBAN), which during this period had a running battle with members of the Copyright Society of Nigeria, (COSON over copyrights. The BON Chairman Alhaji Abubakar Jiwa had noted that his Organisation was not at war with Nigerian musicians but COSON. Senior Reporter AnthoniaSoyingbe in this report sought the views of some artistes on the raging controversy and COSON’s activities.
According to COSON’s website, the decision to set up COSON was premised on broad based agreement between the owners of musical works, the users of the works and the statutory regulators on the need for the industry to close ranks and have one formidable national collective management organization to promote and protect the copyright of practitioners in the Nigerian music industry.
COSON is also expected to ensure that the rights of persons from other lands who have interest in music used in Nigeria are protected. It was in the year 2000 that it was agreed between the existing collective management structures that those structures must be collapsed into COSON to bring to an end the schism and undue rivalry in the collective management of rights in the music industry. It was not until the formation of the Nigerian Music Industry Coalition in 2009, that it was decided that the time had come to take the bull by the horn. All known stakeholders in Nigeria were invited to make their imputs for a collective management in Nigeria. At the end of several weeks of consultations and consensus building, stakeholders came out with a concrete arrangement which made COSON a non-profit making organization governed by an Interim Management Board representing the different stakeholders and groups.
COSON is expected to play a watchdog role which is critical in an environment that is still very suspicious of the intellectual property concept.
Sammie Okposo, an award winning gospel artiste, while calling for caution noted that there are more to the crisis saying he has collected royalties from other African countries and so he is not ignorant of the norm. He is of the view that COSON Officials should not disburse the funds noting that the practice which he considers as “a joke goes way back when COSON was going all around telling people that they are giving royalties to artistes. I found it very insulting for them to issue a cheque of N15, 000 for an artiste of my caliber for a two-year airplay. I have collected royalties from Ghana and South Africa for a six months period, I collected $6000. COSON is just taking Nigerian musicians for granted and there are other Nigerian musicians that can testify to what I am saying. I know what I put into my publicity in Nigeria; there is no day that goes by without couple of stations not playing my music. ”
He concluded “that the issue with COSON and IBAN was the last straw that broke the camel’s back”. Okposo had at the inception of COSON supported the body because to him it was meant to assist musicians in the country.
Ice-K of Artquake who received N15, 000 as royalty from COSON while speaking with Daily Independent said, “We stopped asking for royalties since 2011 knowing it may not be any different from the meager amount last paid. For me, I believe COSON is doing a good job but in with wrong apparatus. They need to be able to get a proper structure to know what each artiste deserves and they need to have machineries in place to be able to properly monitor the airplay of artistes under the body. I don’t think it is right for them to just slam any amount on a media house without a proper log to show what the media house truly owes”.
However, he would not subscribe to any form of protest against the scrapping of the body. For the Artiste, “it is important that media houses pay artistes for content so I will not join a protest to scrap COSON rather I will join a team that will like to have a round table discussion on suggestions on how they can more effectively carry out their services more convincing and more transparent,” Ice-K said.
Eceterra, a radio presenter and soul-singe however slammed COSON for its activities stating that he didn’t join the group from inception because he was sure they would manipulate artistes. “I have always made it known to my colleagues that I am not and won’t be a part of COSON until a transparent structure is put in place. I work with a radio station and I can authoritatively say that COSON has never demanded for the Log of songs played at the radio station.. They just come up with a total amount and make it mandatory for the stations to pay… This is criminal. It is also criminal for COSON to go about collecting money from organisations without issuing a proof of artists they represent. As we speak, there is no difference between COSON and the touts at the bus stops collecting money from danfos.
How do they monitor the usage of the artiste works? If my songs are being used in places like Potiskum or Gusau how will they know? The issue is COSON is not well equipped and structured. And before they start collecting money, they should put the right structures in place.”
He continued thatCOSON “has never at any time explained to artistes how much they collect from radio stations (per spin/airplay) and what percentage goes to the artiste and COSON. COSON should be investigated by EFCC because it is very clear that they are just a group of retired musicians who have decided to set up a retirement trust fund for themselves. Artiste and copyright owner must have a choice of Collecting Society to assign their works to. You can’t impose COSON on everyone as the only collecting society. That is undemocratic.”
Describing the formation of COSON as illegal, Tee Mac Omatshola Iseli, former Performing Musician Association of Nigeria, PMAN, President, “It is time that Nigerian Copyright Commissions (NCC) stops their stories. COSON was illegally registered and it was proven to the House Committee in a public hearing. COSON used names of musicians for registration without their consent; they had no audited accounts and no bilateral agreements with collective societies around the world. Now the National Assembly ordered them to register MCSN and we musicians demand that this is done immediately or we shall come back to Abuja in the hundreds to protest and block their offices as we did two years ago. We also demand an EFCC investigation into the accounts of COSON and we shall see on how they shared the money collected”.
However it seems the raging controversy over payment of royalties would soon come to an end if we are to believe the words of Tony Okoroji in his New Year message that the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) is set to announce a framework for the collection and payment of royalties that will be acceptable to both the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) COSON.