The management of Playground, managers of music star, Paul Play on Friday replied management of Ultima limited over their response to the copyright infringement claims they will be redressing in a Nigeria court soon.
Earlier, Ultima limited had insisted in a statement signed by its management that it had been making the annual statutory payments required for the use of musical works for both local and international artistes on the Project Fame show and hence debunked the copyright infringement claims by the “angel of my life” crooner.
The statement signed by Paul Play management, reads; “Our attention was called to a message posted on this platform by Ultima Ltd.
“We can see that there is fire on the mountain already.
“We laughed all the way through the write up. We will not make any comment on this message as the suit against MTN and Ultima Ltd is already in the Lagos high court.
“However, for any aspiring young musician or artiste in Nigeria. Here is your wake up call. This is not Paul Play’s fight alone but a fight to save the entire music industry from modern slavery.
“This is one of the ways to transform our beloved country to greatness.
“This is for young Nigerians who don’t have a job after university education and decided to go into music to make their life better.
“They are in the music business and yet being short changed and ripped off by organisations whom they are helping to grow. Let us make it very simple
“We hereby present to you copyright law 101-
1. You have to be a registered member of a collecting society before they can collect any money on your behalf. There is no law in existence on earth, air or under the sea that gives anyone or company or government to sell or licence your work without your consent. If any government comes with that law,We advise you to sue that government because the Slave trade era is light years away.
2. Nobody can force you to be a member of any collecting society or make you a member without your knowledge unless you are sure you are still living in the slave trade era.
3. Any licensee must be sure if he/she gets licence from the collecting society of which the owner of the work is a member. They must confirm that the owner of the work is a registered member before they use the work. He/she must never use such work based on assumption. The membership must be verified.
3.There are three forms of licensing needed to use your song in a reality show. Master licence, performance license and synchronization license. Any licensing procedure contrary to this is illegal
4. If you still don’t understand. Let us break it down to molecules. If a stranger took your car from your home while u were asleep and sold it to a buyer by making the buyer believe that the owner gave him the permission. The buyer now sells the car to a king who starts to drive it around town. The king, the buyer and the stranger who took the car are all in trouble. They are all involved in a trade of a stolen vehicle because the owner never agreed or authorised anyone to sell his car in the first place and even didn’t receive any money!!!
“Now convert that to your intellectual property.
“If you don’t understand this you will need to get yourself an entertainment lawyer. Nigerian artistes should wake up and stop being ignorant of the law that protects their works.
“They are being ripped off day by day by the people who know the dark and shady areas in the copyright law. Its a pity that this country lacks enough entertainment lawyers. this is the beginning of public enlightenment for those who wish to learn.
It would be recalled that Paul Play confirmed to DailyPost that he was suing MTN and Ultima Limited for the unlawful use of his song.
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