ROYALTY PAYMENT : NO HIDING PLACE FOR IBAN/BON

Efe Omorogbe , CEO of Now Muzik, is an arrowhead of the protection of intellectual property of artistes in Nigeria. He speaks on the threat by Independent Broadcasters Association of Nigeria (IBAN) and Broadcaster Organisation of Nigeria (BON) to shut down some artistes on the airwaves.

Can BON/IBAN really go through with the threat of shutdown?

If they can, I doubt it. Obviously, as far as am concerned, this is really a gamble, a war strategy. It’s something to put out there and hope that it will scare people enough to react and the reaction that they want is basically from the artiste; a section of the artiste saying we do not want to be a part of this, COSON speaks for itself, COSON does not represent us.

Obviously, that’s basically the idea. Unfortunately it has achieved the opposite result. Instead of having people withdraw their membership/allegiance to COSON, they have reaffirmed their conviction in COSON, and they are outraged and angry. It has exposed BON/IBAN as two organizations that have been so far insecure about this whole copyright dispute.

Artistes developing cold feet

People will definitely develop cold feet. Everybody has equal access to information and there are varying degrees of knowledge of the subject matter. More importantly, everybody has different levels of strength, moral rectitude and personal conviction. There are always going to be people like that.

Sometimes, people call me to say this person is saying this or sending an email to a radio station that they should delete a song. You don’t expect that in a situation like this there won’t be a section of the people that are rattled.

My thing is not to focus on that because the people who are rattled and in a hurry to sell their birthright are not as many as people that want to protect their property. So whatever dissenting voices you hear, it’s natural.

It’s like that everywhere from time immemorial. The slaves taken from Africa were not sold into slavery by Americans or Europeans but by Africans, their brothers and sisters. During the slave trade, there were black people, that’s where the phenomenon of house and field niggers came from, who were so subservient to the white people they the white people trusted them enough to bring them into their homes.

Among the house Negros there were people who treated fellow blacks worse than even the white slave owners. So there is always going to be a sell out and spineless traitors.

Jesus Christ had 12 disciples; there was a Judas among them. So, factor that in an industry of let’s say 1200 people. If among 12 there was one Judas so among 1200, there will be a 100 Judases. That’s the nature of man.

Other steps COSON is taking

We are putting our feet down. We were in a meeting with NBC and they made two important pronouncements. One, that it’s in d broadcast code, you cannot operate a radio station and broadcast music without getting a license.

There is no running away from it, you must pay royalty. So an artiste sending an email to a radio station to use his music for free is neither here nor there, it’s invalid. The guys are just ignorant and spineless. At the end of the day, for you to retain your license to broadcast, you must adhere to the rule that you have to pay royalty.

The second thing NBC stressed was that the only registered organization in Nigeria that can collect royalty, whether for members or non members or foreign repertoire or music from outer space, as far as you are operating in the territory of Nigeria, is COSON.

So if you must pay and you have only COSON to pay to, there is no argument, the issue is how much are you paying and how much is COSON setting that you should pay.

At this point there is nowhere to hide for IBAN or BON except they are not going to submit themselves to their regulator which is the NBC.