Court asks music society to answer NCC charges

Justice Buba said in his ruling that hearing in the criminal charges brought against the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN)  by Nigerian Copyright Commission are not defective and do not constitute  abuse of the law.He held that  the application of the accused persons contesting the charges against them was misconceived.According to him, all the  […]

Justice Buba said in his ruling that hearing in the criminal charges brought against the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN)  by Nigerian Copyright Commission are not defective and do not constitute  abuse of the law.
He held that  the application of the accused persons contesting the charges against them was misconceived.
According to him, all the  allegations in the different charges were different and in order
 He fixed 16th, 20th and 22nd January 2014 for hearing of the matter following the ruling.
The NCC had six different charges against MCSN following the arrest of their officers on September 18, 2012 for performing the duties of a collecting society without the approval of NCC contrary to Section 39 of the Copyright Act.
In each of the charges, MCSN was accused of also demanding royalties from a particular company and carrying on the business of soliciting and granting licenses on behalf of copyright owners without the approval of the NCC and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 39(4), (5) and (6) of the Nigerian Copyright Act Cap C 28 LFN 2004.
MCSN had filed a motion challenging the arrest of their officers on September 18, 2012 over the accusation of performing the duties of a collecting society without the approval of NCC.
MCSN had argued that charges brought against them by the NCC were bad for duplicity claiming that a previous judgment issued by retired justice Archibong had held that MCSN was carrying out a legal business ruling out Section 39 of the Copyright Act as being unconstitutional.
Other claims by the MCSN were that the commission should not have filed several charges against them while also urging the court to either strike out the charge or stay the hearing of the charge until the other charges were determined.
The NCC their counter motion had urged the court to dismiss MCSN application because section 39 of the Copyright Act is not unconstitutional.
The NCC had relied on a previous ruling by a Federal High Court presided over by Justice Sanni which  ruled in a case    involving NCC Vs MCSN that Section 39m of the Copyright Act is constitutional.
   It also made reference   to rulings of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court in a case filed by Compact Disc Technologies against MCSN where the courts had ruled  that Section 39 of the Copyright Act was constitutional and ruled that MCSN should comply with the provision.
NCC in a submission had also urged the court to follow the decision of the superior court while also arguing that charges against the MCSN were not bad for duplicity as alleged by the accused. According to the NCC each time the accused demanded and collected royalty for usage of musical works without the approval of the NCC, a separate offence is committed.