Lawsuits about music royalties are quite common, and it appears that this is an issue in Nigeria also. Of a somewhat different nature than the typical music royalty lawsuits we’ve been seeing lately, this time it’s about a bank in Nigeria that is being accused of using copyrighted music in their advertising. The Copyright Society of Nigeria, COSON, has filed a N700 million ($4.3 million US) lawsuit against First Bank Plc for alleged copyright infringement.

The suit was filed on Monday, April 14th, on behalf of COSON by Lagos lawyer Justin Ige of Creative Legal Seun Omotoba & Co. As reported by All Africa, in the lawsuit, COSON complains that First Bank Plc did not apply for or secure a license or any authorization whatsoever before "exploiting, communicating to the public, publishing and deploying the musical works and sound recordings of its members and assignors as included in, reproduced and contained in the Sights and Sounds of Carnival Calabar and deployed by First Bank Plc in its marketing, promotion and advertising."

COSON Chairman, Tony Okoroji, when discussing the case, said "Let it be heard loud and clear that COSON is determined to sanitize the copyright environment in Nigeria. No one is too big or too small to abide by the law. A lot of young Nigerians are investing their talents, time and money in creating the music which is making Nigeria famous across the world and they deserve to be respected. For anyone to exploit their creative ingenuity, the person must get appropriate permission.”

Okoroji made a very relative comparison about the complaint by stating, "If a musician takes a loan from a bank without paying back, the bank will chase the musician to the ends of the world to recover the loan. What right does a bank have to use the property of the musician without payment or authorization?"

All Africa mentions that COSON is currently in discussions with members of the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria and the Independent Broadcasting Association of Nigeria over the royalty payments.

On the light side of things, considering the millions of emails that have circulated over the years, we’ve all been led to believe that everyone in Nigeria holds all the money in the world for people to claim from distant relatives if we just send the required fee and our personal banking information. That’s been in our inboxes over and over again for many years, and has implied that money issues for Nigeria are not a concern no matter what the issue is, or what financial institutions are used for transactions. However, we’re smart enough to know better than to believe everything we read in emails, and that those emails really were not factual.

This lawsuit brought forth by COSON demonstrates yet another example of copyright issues and the related lawsuits that exist in every country. It also shows that the music industries in every country seek very large damage claims for alleged copyright infringements.