In
a landmark ruling, a Federal High Court has ordered Multichoice to pay
Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria billions over copyright
infringement.
Multichoice
A Federal High Court, Lagos has ordered Multichoice Nigeria Limited
to pay the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria Ltd./GTE (MCSN)
billions of naira as damages for copyright infringement, according to
The Guardian Nigeria.
Trouble started after Multichoice had in 2011 sued MCSN for asking
for royalties in some musical works it claimed were among its
repertories.
In the suit, Multchoice claimed that MCSN was not registered as a
collecting society in accordance with the Nigeria Copyright Commission
Acts of 2011 and therefore lacked legitimacy to ask for the royalties on
the copyright works.
But MCSN averred that since its incorporation in 1984 and through
the various deeds of assignment of copyright from several Nigerian
composers, authors, publishers, directors and producers of musical and
audio-visual works, the reciprocal representation agreements between it
and the Performing Rights Society (PRS) and Mechanical–Copyright
Protection Society (MCPS), both of the United Kingdom and other sister
organizations throughout the world, she had, as owner, assignee and
exclusive licensee of copyright, been protecting and enforcing her
rights in Nigeria.
It also averred that Multichoice served as a conduit for related
companies like Mnet South Africa, Napsers and Dstv (Digital Satellite
Television) by re-transmitting and broadcasting television signals of
these entities, amongst several others, to the whole of Nigeria.
Amongst the content of such re-broadcast are works belonging to MSCN as owners, assignee and exclusive licensee.
In the judgment delivered last Friday, after eight years of the
legal tussle, Justice Mohammed Idris struck out Multichoice’s claims for
not conforming to the rules of court.
The judge, who cited several authorities, held that the defect was fundamental and could not be remedied even with an amendment.
Justice Idris noted that the plaintiff’s writ of summons was not
signed by a legal practitioner as stipulated by the rules of court,
which made it incurably defective and liable to be struck out.
He therefore struck out the claims and went ahead to uphold the counter-claim filed by MSCN.
Justice Idris also held that Multichoice infringed on the copyright
of MCSN in the course of and to promote their businesses and to make
profit without the authority or licence of right owners and the society
has suffered loss and damage.
He said: “The court having delivered judgment striking out the
Multichioce’s claims, hereby ordered as follows: That judgment is
entered in favour of the defendant/counter-claimant in the following
terms: 5,490,652,125.00 only as special damages comprising of:
N4,157,460,500.000 which became due and collectable from 6th January
2006 to January 2012, inclusive of Value added Tax of N197,950,500 only
payable to the Federal Government of Nigeria through Musical Copyright
Society of Nigeria LTD/GTE, N200,000,000.00 only as general damages and
N309,347,875.50 only as aggravated damages.”
In its counter-claim, MCSN had accused Multichoice of
infringing on its copyright on 18 songs, including Konko Below and Never
Far Away by Nigerian masked musician, Bisade Ologunde (alias Lagbaja.”
The other songs used by Multichoice ‘without lawful permission’
included UEFA Cup thematic music and UEFA Championship League thematic
music.
Multichioce was alleged to have bluntly refused or neglected to
voluntarily apply for and obtain the permission of the counter-claimant
before deploying the musical works into the its broadcasting
activities.
No comments:
Post a Comment