A’Court awards N500m to COSON for copyright infringement

There was jubilation at the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) House, yesterday, as the Court of Appeal, sitting in Calabar, Cross River State capital, affirmed the 2018 judgment of the Federal High Court, awarding N500 million to the society. The money is for copyright infringement at the Calabar Carnival and Festival.

COSON, which represents thousands of owners of copyright in musical works and sound recordings in Nigeria, as well as represents the music repertoire of several collective management organisations across the world, in 2014, instituted Suit No: FHC/C/CA/15/2014 against the Cross River State government, and the state’s Carnival Commission for copyright infringement.

It said this was in connection with unlicensed copying, communication to the public and broadcast of the musical works and sound recordings belonging to members, affiliates, assignors and licensors of COSON at the yearly Calabar Carnival and Festival.

The Federal High Court, Calabar, on April 30, 2018, entered judgment in favour of COSON for the sum of N500 million.

The Court also ordered a perpetual injunction restraining deployment of musical works in the COSON repertoire, at the Calabar Carnival, without valid authorisation.

The state government and the carnival commission, which lost to COSON at the court, appealed the judgment, an appeal, which they have also lost with the affirmation of the Federal High Court decision by the Court of Appeal.

Reacting to the judgment, COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji, thanked the panel of justices for affirming the intellectual property rights of creative people in Nigeria, stating that no one is above the law, not even state governments.
Okoroji said: “It took us nine years of stringent legal battle to win this historic victory for Nigerian musicians and the entire creative family. It is our legacy for the coming generation.

“Our unshaking commitment and resilience are at the heart of this victory. The monetary award is important, but more important is the precedent set by the courts. It might seem expensive to obtain a licence to publicly deploy musical works, but it is far more expensive not to get such a licence.”