The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) says it will soon begin the enforcement of the criminal provisions of the Copyright Act against any Deejay who is found to be in infringement.
The Director General of the commission, Dr. John Asein stated this on Monday at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN) and Deejays Association of Nigeria (DJAN) in Abuja.
He said the move was in line with the Commission’s renewed drive to ensure respect for copyright and address all forms of copyright abuses.
The DG who was represented at the occasion by Mr. Augustine Amadu, Director regulatory department at NCC, said the commission will be engaging with the DJAN to develop a regulatory framework and ensure that operators are properly accredited and identified when they carry out public performances.
“This is to bring sanity to their operations, promote professionalism and ensure total compliance with copyright rules,” he said.
He said Disc Jockeys are critical stakeholders in the copyright value-chain.
“This is because apart from their pivotal role in the dissemination and public performance of music, they are also content creators. In the process of performing recorded music, they often create remixes that also qualify as protectable copyright works. It is therefore in their interest that the collective management system works well to reward right owners,” Dr. Asein said.
He said the signing of the MoU couldn not have come at a better time than now as Nigeria’s creative industry is witnessing an unprecedented boom.
“As much as we celebrate these successes, we also acknowledge the huge losses of revenue attributable to poor rights management in an increasingly borderless and technology-driven digital environment. More avenues for accessing creative contents are springing up on different platforms, disrupting traditional sales and licensing arrangements,” Asein said promising that NCC will always be there to protect the rights of creative people.
Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer MCSN, Mr. Mayowa Ayinlaran, thanked the management of NCC for midwifing the MoU.
He said he was happy musicians have come to recorgnise the role of deejays in the entertainment industry. He promised that MCSN will keep its own part of the agreement.
In his own remarks, National President of DJAN, Mr. Take Adeyemi, thanked NCC for the role it is playing to protect the rights of people in the creative industry in Nigeria.
He said Deejays are not parasites as people think but are actually critical partners as they serve as transporters of Nigerian music and culture.
The event was attended by stakeholders in the Nigerian music industry including the President of Nigerian Copyright Society of Nigeria, Orits Wiliki.