Following a recent threat by the leadership of the Broadcasting
Organization of Nigeria (BON) to stop playing songs of some Nigerian artistes
on its affiliates stations, the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) has
described the development as an ‘empty threat’.
Okoroji said that BON has shown to the world its crass ignorance with
which some of its members have been misled and steered into easily avoidable
crisis.
“For their information, by the reciprocal representation agreements
entered into between COSON and several collective management organizations
around the world and the various copyright conventions to which Nigeria is a
signatory, every broadcast station in Nigeria is bound to pay copyright
royalties for foreign music as it must for the music belonging to Nigerians.
Failure to pay exposes Nigeria to both economic and diplomatic sanctions,” the
COSON boss said in the statement.
He added that, “Those members of BON who have been made to believe that
they can hide under foreign music to avoid their duty to pay for the
intellectual property of Nigerian citizens which they consume are warned that
they have no place to hide.”
Okoroji stated further that, “For many years, some leaders of the
broadcasting industry in Nigeria have lived in opulence and squandered the
money that should have been used to pay royalties to musicians, whose rights
they have continued to infringe recklessly while the artistes die in penury.”
He disclosed that, “COSON is committed to using the instruments of the
law to fully defend the rights of creative people in Nigeria and promote the
Nigerian nation to the world.”
Okoroji warned that, “We will not be intimidated and will never act
outside the law. We are committed to ensuring that musicians walk tall in
Nigeria and earn a decent living for their work. We will do what is necessary
to ensure that our industry offers gainful employment to the thousands of our
countrymen who roam the streets today aimlessly. Take it from me: we will work
day and night, without fear or favour, to continue to promote the spirit of the
COSON slogan, Let the music pay!”