3 BILLION NAIRA King Sunny Ade sues marketers over copyright infringement

King Sunny Ade  filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court, Lagos involving seven defendants who are charged for musical records, cassettes and cassette jacket print in Nigeria. In other words, copyright infringement!

According to the media, KSA filed the lawsuit since 2007. The legendary singer demanded damages of about N 3 billion  from the defendant for allegedly infringing on about 43 works from him as he seeks a court order directing the defendants to deliver master tapes of the said works to him.

According to legal docs obtained, the defendants in the suit are Alagbada Nigeria Ltd, Take Your Choice Records Store Ltd, Alhaja Awawu Ade Amodu and Sons, African Songs Limited, Lati Records Manufacturer of Nigeria Limited, Ibukunolu Printers Nigeria Ltd, and M.O. Alagbada Nigeria Company.
KSA did admit he had five years agreement with these defendants in the 1970s, but upon expiration of the deal, the defendant failed to return master tapes of the songs despite continued demands.
He recounted how the unauthorised reproduction and distribution of his musical efforts by these defendants had affected his financial and social worth.
He maintained that, his monthly revenue from live shows, which used to be N5 million, had been drastically reduced to a “paltry” sum of N500,000. He also revealed that his monthly income from sales of compact discs and cassettes had dwindled from N3.5 million to N150,000.
The defendants however stood their ground contrary to King Sunny Ade’s claims, maintaining that, their relationship with the musician dated back to 1966 when they received and negotiated musical performance bookings for him, in addition to sponsoring his musical tour of the United Kingdom.
Copyright infringement is a serious issue taken unseriously in Nigeria. With some entertainers stealing content while other brands accuse them of intellectual theft, it’s unsafe to create something new.

sources:sosnation