MCSN victory has put Nigerian Creative Industry on a reset -Mayowa Ayilaran, CEO MCSN

By Adekunle Badmus

Following the Judgement of a Federal High Court on March 25, 2020 in favour of the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria, the country’s Creative Industry has been described as currently on a reset.

Chief Executive Officer of MCSN, Mayowa Ayilaran says the long years of legal battle to rescue the future of creative works in Nigeria has been settled with the intervention of the Attorney General of the Federation, Mallam Abubakar Malami, SAN.

According to Ayilaran in his opening speech during a recent Virtual Press Conference held on Zoom on Thursday June 17, intellectual properties in Nigeria is back in the hands of the right organisation with the legal mandate to collect royalties on behalf of the artistes.

Ayilaran in his opening speech highlights new developments in the area of key decisions and pronouncements of the courts regarding the collective administration and enforcement of copyright in Nigeria.

MCSN which has been engrossed in very serious and life-threatening struggle to defend its right to operate, vis-à-vis its right to earn or be paid royalties due from the use of works in its repertoire, particularly by broadcast stations, whether terrestrial, digital or satellite.

You will also recall the life threatening onslaught of COSON on MCSN in the last ten years during which time MCSN and its key officials were labelled as criminals and called various ugly names.

Ayilaran said, during the period, key officials of MCSN were variously incarcerated and remanded in prison custody, charged to court variously in Lagos and Abuja for alleged criminal operations and MCSN’s business and assets virtually destroyed.

in his words, “We however remain eternally grateful to God and Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, who at a point intervened and directed that the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) should grant MCSN approval to operate as a collecting society or Collective Management Organisation (CMO) and cease all forms of litigation between MCSN and the NCC.

“It must be underscored that the intervention of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice was based on the concurrent findings of his investigation of the issues between NCC and MCSN and the Investigative Public Hearing of the Joint Committees of the National Assembly and Resolutions passed by the Whole House of the National Assembly on 18 December 2013 on the vexed issue of the unjust denial of approval to MCSN to operate as a collecting society or CMO.

“It must be stressed that this intervention by the Honourable Minister saved the Nigerian copyright system, from serious constitutional, statutory and regulatory logjam and mitigated certain injuries.”
He said.

The MCSN CEO went on to highlight judgements of the Federal High Court in the cases which eventually put on record
the Resolutions of the National Assembly of 18 December 2013 and the directives of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice of 22nd March 2017 into proper perspective;

1. Suit No. FHC/L/CS/274/2010: Musical Copyright Society Nigeria Ltd/Gte vs. Copyright Society of Nigeria Ltd/Gte & Ors delivered on 25th March 2020. The Federal High Court described the approval and registration of COSON as an anomaly and ordered the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to strike out the name of COSON from the Companies’ Register in Nigeria.

The implication of this judgment is that COSON never existed in law and anything that has been done in the name of the company was illegal, null and void.

The judgment also confirms MCSN’s complaints way back in 2009 that COSON’s formation was based on deceit and fraud, which was meant to illegally supplant MCSN.

Both the National Assembly Resolutions and the Directive of the Honourable Minister underscored the underhand and inexplicable denial of approval to MCSN by the NCC.

2. Appeal Nos. SC. 366/2008: Adeokin Records Co & Anor. Vs. Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria Ltd/Gte delivered on 13 July 2018 and SC. 425/2010: Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria Ltd/Gte vs. Compact Discs Technologies Limited & Ors delivered on 14 December 2018.

The Supreme Court in the two judgement affirmed the right of MCSN to protect and sue for copyright in its repertoire without necessarily being approved or licensed as a collecting society or CMO.

The judgement went further to analyse the applicability of Sections 17 and 39 of the Copyright Act 2004 to MCSN and declared that the sections do not apply to MCSN as the organisation had already acquired its rights and status to operate prior to the establishment of the NCC and the enactment of the Copyright Act 2004 and that the sections of the Act cannot operate retroactively to affect MCSN.

3. Appeal No. CA/L/188/2018: Multichoice Nigeria Limited vs. Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria Ltd/Gte delivered on 29th May 2020.

This judgement of the Court of Appeal affirms MCSN’s proprietary right in musical works and sound recordings and to be duly compensated for the exploitation of the works by users such as Multichoice Nigeria Limited.

The judgement also affirms the legal standing of MCSN and right to act on the right of action which it has acquired long before the NCC was established or the enactment of the Copyright Act 2004.

The judgment considered nine issues out of which it resolved six in favour of MCSN against Multichoice, two were struck out for being academic and want of jurisdiction and one was resolved equally between MCSN and Multichoice.

The virtual meeting was attended by industry Bignames like; Kennys FM CEO, Kenny Ogungbe, Orits Wiliki, Barr. Ope Banwo among other Reporters from various media organisations.