AN APPRAISAL OF NIGERIAN COPYRIGHT LAWS AS IT RELATES TO THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

AN APPRAISAL OF NIGERIAN COPYRIGHT LAWS AS IT RELATES TO THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

Abstract:

This research scrutinizes the laws that have been put in place to enable the music industry in Nigeria. It examines the effectiveness of the copyright laws of Nigeria as it relates to the music industry. This study focuses on the relevance of the laws to the industry, the inadequacies of the law, and the challenges militating against its effectiveness. Using an ethnomusicological approach, and the qualitative research method, the study sources her primary data using both structured and unstructured interview techniques. Secondary data are collated using library sources and existing literature. Special attention is given to the history and development copyright law in Nigeria from precolonial era till date, the several amendments of the law and the trend in the global music industry. Findings reveal inadequacy of the law and gross incompetence in the areas of laws implementation. It recommends a review of the existing law to take cognizance of development in the industry and for it to be in the interest of all the practitioners and stakeholder. It also recommends a more commitment from the government agencies in charge of regulation and implementation of the law.

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Nigeria is one of the nations of Africa with a rapidly evolving Music industry. It is a developing nation, with a music industry that is constantly setting new standards in the entertainment scene, particularly in the continent of Africa. As a result, new musical idioms are continuously being developed, fusing modernized and traditional styles (Adedeji 2016: 261).

The music space in Nigeria is multifaceted. It can be categorized into various forms; there is Traditional music which is devoid of the colonial masters,  missionaries,  explorers, and other foreign influences. There is Neo-traditional music, which came into being as result of indigenous contact with foreign elements but still portrays, largely, the traditional elements. The third category is Art music. Art music is a general term often used to describe thoughtfully cultivated music, particularly in Western societies, and as in contrast to pop and folk music. Art music is a term that encompasses music traditions that apply advanced structural and theoretical considerations with a written musical tradition. It is the music composed by the trained musician as contrasted with folk music and often with popular music.

Art music is also the category of music that is primarily of a written musical tradition, preserved in music notations as opposed to oral, note, or recording transmissions as seen in modern and traditional music. Just like the development of both Traditional and Neo traditional music have been aided by several sociological factors, The development of Art music has been greatly influenced  by different bodies which include, churches, mission schools, government colleges, Musical Society of Nigeria(MUSON), Nigeria Broadcasting Cooperation(NBC) and National Council of Art and Culture.

Popular music: It is a brand of music that is entertainment oriented. Popular music is that music with a wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. Art music and Traditional music, on the other hand, are typically disseminated academically or orally to a smaller, local or elite audience, and this stands in contrast. Popular music doesn’t necessitate much thought. It’s unplanned and geared toward the general public.The growth of modern popular music in Nigeria has deep origins in the country’s current traditional musical practices and culture, and its growth and modernization have been inspired by a variety of factors including needs, connections, international influence, religion, politics, the economy, and urbanization. Radio broadcasting of music, which began in Nigeria in the early 1920s, helped to spread popular songs to a huge audience, enabling a much larger proportion of the population to hear songs performed by professional singers and music ensembles, including individuals from lower income groups who previously would not have been able to afford concert tickets. Radio broadcasting increased the ability of songwriters, singers and bandleaders to become nationally known. Another factor which helped to disseminate popular music was the introduction of a move towards consolidation in the recording industry, which led several major companies to dominate the record industry.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the new invention of television began to play an increasingly important role in disseminating new popular music.  In the 1960s, the development of new technologies in recording, such as multitrack recorders gave sound engineers and record producers an increasingly important role in popular music. By using multitrack recording techniques, sound engineers could create new sounds and sound effects that were not possible using traditional live recording techniques. the recording studio was used to create even more unusual sounds.

Population growth has contributed in no small ways to the development of entertainment sector in Nigeria. This is in addition to economic boom that was experienced shortly after the civil war in 1970, the music industry in Nigeria has continued to blaze the trail. According to Adedeji (2016: 261-262) “With a population of over 150 million people, the country has a wide enough domestic market to support and ensure the commercial viability of most musical endeavors as a result, most successful artists tailor their music to meet domestic needs in small way.

With hundreds of music recording studios, thousands of entertainment venues of all sizes, and countless musicians and performing groups throughout the world, Nigeria is unrivaled in Africa in terms of cultural production. Under this, the music industry can be seen as the apparatus that works together to manage the duty and facilitation of music output, commercialization, and distribution in a range of ways, including physical, streaming, live, and other multimedia formats.

According to Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC, 2016), a global network that coordinates, develops policies and initiatives of firms, this rise is reflected in statistics, which show that revenue from music sales in Nigeria is expected to increase to $86 million in 2020 from $47 million in 2016, with ring tones and ring back tones accounting for the majority of the increase. The music industry’s sales growth is expected to contribute significantly to the increased growth expected in the film and media industry, which is expected to increase from $44.8 million in 2013 to $86.1 million in 2019, with income rising at a 13.4% compound annual growth rate to US$73 million by 2021. About the fact that this sales figure is limited in comparison to more mature economies outside of Africa, the scope for growth is high. Aside from YouTube, online sites that offer musicon-demand services have also attracted attention to the increasing global audience (Nzere, 2018). Nigerian music industry, according to local commerce player Jumia, has expanded to 150 million smart phone subscribers and 97.2 million Internet users, with penetration rates of 81 percent and 53 percent, respectively.

Despite the music industry’s growing contribution to Nigeria’s economy as a vibrant subset of the Information Communication industry, which the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics classifies as an activity in this sector, little has been done in terms of upgrade of issues like regulations and management which are necessary to standardize the industry and create modern rules of engagement for the new stakeholders emerging particularly in the digital arena that the industry is set to operate in. Artists, composers, managers, producers, live music promoters, and music distributors are among the groups and outfits that work together toward a shared purpose in the music business. As observed by Kargbo (2016), People who do not have the professionalism or interest to make good musicians or good music have flooded the music industry. People now own and manage labels even though they have no understanding of music or how it is made. Artists’ lack of knowledge of the music industry and the inability of music professionals to grasp the dynamics of the music market is a dangerous trend that could hinder the industry’s development and even ruin the framework that stakeholders are attempting to create.

These issues were some of the factors that led to the departure of major labels (Efe Omeregbe,interview, 2009), which eventually signaled the deterioration of the

industry’s system for artists.

In a nutshell_, the industry’s main big issues are; lack of proper market structure, government oversight and lack of interest in the copyright industry, inadequate knowledge of copyright matters on the part of both creators and consumers of musical works, disregard for the value of intellectual property. Management of intellectual property, which formed the basis of the project is perhaps the most rampant of all these challenges. In recent time, these challenge have escalated. Some example of the recent cases are that of Sir Jude Nnam. Nman is a prominent catholic music composer who filed a lawsuit against the record label Five Star Music, it’s Chief Executive Officer Emeka Okonkwo and their artist Kingsley Chinweike Okonkwo popularly known as

Kcee. Another case of copyright infringement was between Ajibola Olumuyiwa Danladi popularly known as Danny Young also filed the lawsuit  against Tiwa Savage.

King Sunny Ade (KSA) was also involved in a protracted legal battle with the company African Songs and its subsidiary, Take Your Choice Stores.

The growth experienced in the industry the beginning was stunted by a clear lack of knowledge of copyright issues by both the practitioners and government agencies. In an attempt to remedy this particular infraction in the industry, several legislations and executive initiatives have been applied. There is the Nigerian Copyright Act which has been amended and reviewed over the years to soothe the needs of the people and meet the challenges of a rapidly evolving music industry. During the General Yakubu Gowon regime, the first indigenous copyright law in Nigeria was drafted and later passed as a decree (Decree No. 61 of 1970). It specified the works were liable for copyright, how copyright was conferred, the essence of copyright in specific works, first possession, assignment and licensing, violation, and infringement acts. However, the law did not fulfill its intended purpose as no authority was assigned to enforce the law. The 1988 Copyright Act was concerns about the noticeable lapses in the 1970 act and the law was largely ineffective and this led to the agitation of the 1988 copyright Act. In response to the widespread clamour, the Federal Military Government promulgated Decree No. 47 in 1988.

In 1988, after a number of meetings, a new copyright law was enacted as a decree (Decree No. 47 of 1988). The Nigerian copyright industry frustrated and agitated identified legislative reform as one of the cardinal issues in fighting the challenges posed by piracy. After series of meetings and lobbying, the 1988 Copyright legislation was passed and became a part of the Nigerian legal system.  It was revised two more in the following years, in 1992 (Decree No. 98) and 1999 (Decree No. 99).  The amendment became part of the codification of Nigerian Law done in 2004 as (Decree No. 42). Cap C28 of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN 2004). All these laws have been found inadequate. These form the basis for this research project. With the use of ethnographic methods lazed with necessary research tools, the project dissects the challenges facing the industry particular those that are related to copyright enforcement and adjudications.

1.2 Statement of the Research Problem

The Nigerian government is yet to have any efficient official policy or proper way of enforcing policies to protect the intellectual rights of artists. General lack of awareness of the problem of piracy on the part of both the copyright owners and users in the music industry will in turn lead to copyright owners losing income if there is no successful copyright compliance according to the Nigeria copyright commission’s regulations, and will therefore be discouraged from continuing to develop. The lack of professional guidance is also a critical factor in understanding the music business industry, which is why an artist needs a company with the structure and manpower to handle this for him.

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the study

The aim of this study is to examine how effective the existing copyright laws in Nigeria has been in providing cover for musicians and other professionals who are involved in the music copyright administration and the specific objectives are:

1. To examine the usefulness of the current copyright act to practitioners in the industry as its relate to the music industry.
2. To examine the copyright related challenges in the music industry as it affects the entire music industry.
3. To elucidate the limitations of the existing copyright laws in Nigeria as it relates to the music industry.
4. To determine the outcome of copyright law in tandem with the evolution of the music industry.

1.4 Research Questions

In order to carry out and accomplish the sole purpose of this research, there is need for the following questions to be asked.

1. How effective has the current copyright law been in providing covers for musicians and other practitioners in the music industry.

2.What are the factors responsible for the challenges of copyright act in the music industry.

3. What are the limitations of the existing copyright laws in Nigeria music industry
4. What are the possible outcome of reviewing the copyright laws in tandem to the music industry

1.5 Significance of the Study

The outcome of this research would be significance to the various professionals who are involved in the music copyright administration which include Music practitioners, Regulatory organization, music managers, Artists, and legal personalities in the intellectual property industry to create and ensure the security of national intellectual treasures and economic profits. musicians and professionals in the music industry will benefit from the role and importance of copyright laws in the business aspect of music and enlighten the industry more on the piracy of intellectual property being a great challenge to the creative industry and the negative effects on income of musicians.it will also give an insight on why the copyright act needs to be reviewed on the music industry. it will serve as good reference point or starting point to researchers and student who might want to take the study into consideration.  The research will also help the public to create awareness of the copyright law and its effectiveness, and also add to the current understanding of copyright.

1.6 Scope of the Study

The copyright act cap c28 laws of federation of Nigerian 2004 is the main legislation on copyright law in Nigeria. The study is confined to copyright laws and restricted to the music industry. Section 6(a) deals with musical work and section 7 focused on copyright in sound recording. This will assist in getting a true perspective of how the copyright laws have been effective in the Nigeria music industry. The research is limited to the music industry.

 

1.7 Limitation of the Study

The Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) was not consulted due to their license to operate as a Collective Management Organization being withdrawn by the, Nigerian Copyright Commission NCC, almost two years ago. Following a persistent  disagreement between The Musical Copyright Society Nigeria and Copyright Society of Nigeria over the collection of royalties in Nigeria. The MCSN testified that COSON’s name was illegally approved as they were the one entitled to the name and their plaintiff. It was the judgment of the court that the Attorney General of the Federation and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) acted improperly and illegally to granting approval to COSON and because of this their musical rights were restricted.

AN APPRAISAL OF NIGERIAN COPYRIGHT LAWS AS IT RELATES TO THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

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