February 4, 2015 – The big legal palaver between Startimes and Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) has been brought to an end, COSON has said.
Based on the agreement, copyright fees which is the bone of contention has been rescheduled with mode of payment and subsequently, the parties agreed to withdraw their actions in court.
This followed the decision of parties to the dispute to settle out of court. It will be recalled that in reaction to an action brought by the operators of Startimes, COSON had in October 2014 filed an application at the Federal High Court, Lagos requesting the court to issue an order of interlocutory injunction restraining NTA-Star TV Network Ltd, owners of Startimes, whether by themselves or their officials, privies, servants, agents or howsoever called from broadcasting, rebroadcasting or communicating to the public on any channel on its platform any musical work and/or sound recording belonging to COSON, its members or affiliates pending the determination of the issues in Suit No. FHC/CS/1149/14.
In a statement, COSON said the legal tussle came to head at a meeting in Abuja between the management of NTA –Star TV Network, owners of Startimes and the leadership of COSON.
We gathered that the meeting was presided over by Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mr. Emeka Mba.
Present at the meeting were the Executive Director of Broadcasting Organizations of Nigeria, Mr. Olusegun Olaleye; representatives of the Director General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), Mr. John Asein and Mr. Michael Akpan.
Also present was Mrs. Bunmi Cole of the NBC while COSON was represented by both the Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji and General Manager, Mr. Chinedu Chukwuji while Mr. Max Loko, Managing Director, NTA Enterprises and Mr. Justin Zhang, General Manager, Star Times represented NTA-Star TV Network. The discussions and negotiations were moderated by Mr. Mac Emakpore who was assisted by Alhaji Bola Agboola.
At the meeting, the management of Startimes was informed that the broadcast industry in Nigeria has entered a period of zero tolerance of copyright infringement and the duty of every broadcast platform to pay for the rights in the music and sound recordings broadcast by it is no longer in argument.
