In this interview with PREMIUM TIMES, the Director-General of MCSN, Mayo Ayilaran, speaks about the business of copyright in Nigeria and the challenges therein.
PT: Don’t you think MCSN and COSON have spent more time fighting each other rather than working together for the good of the industry?I do agree with you on this issue. But our law allows for competition, that is, multiple societies, going by our population and the various rights embedded in copyrights. When we were licensed, the first thing we did was to write to COSON on how we can collaborate but we got no reply.
PT: MCSN was out of business for nearly a decade. Are you up to speed on happenings in the copyright administration and of course, what are details of the Supreme Court’s judgment?Yes, we are always up to speed. We are on top of our game. The issue of piracy was going down then because we had a master plan to tackle the issue of piracy.
The law says you can live or eat by the work you have created but you can’t do that on your own. In many cases, you have people who use your work and will not want to acknowledge that, some people will tell you I bought the CD so I have every right to use it how I like but no, that’s not the position of the law. The moment you use an individual’s work outside your domestic environment and you use it during the course of your business, then you must seek the owner’s permission first.
PT: How can a lot of authors, musicians be improved through copyright laws? Do we still have any room for changes?Our attitude is that the right owner should come forward and get the maximum from whoever is infringing on the rights and we have demonstrated that. We have proof in our case against multi-choice Nigeria, where the court awarded us N6 Billion That one is a judgment that will make you think twice before you confront MCSN or deny it of its rights.
PT: Have you recovered some of your equipment and working tools seized by the Nigerian Copyright Commission when they raided your Ikeja, Lagos office on September 2012?No, most of our equipment and working tools which were taken away have not been returned to us till date. That was in December 2007 and September 2012. These are databases and we saw our competitors try to replicate what we are doing but they can’t because the ideas lie with us, we know the corners, we know what next to do.
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