The Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN) on Tuesday promised to wade into alleged copyright infringement on King Sunny Ade’s music by Davido and Small Doctor.
Mr Mayowa Ayilaran, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MCSN, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the society had not received any formal complaint on the matter.
He said the society wanted to intervene in it to ensure that all the parties received justice and curb future occurrences.
He said that the society had been educating musicians through various social media platforms on the need to seek permission from legitimate music owners before copying their works.
According to him, when the society has detected the veracity of the allegation, it will advise the musicians in question to pay certain percentage of profits made from the songs to the original owner.
Ayilaran said that the society would also be organising a seminar for artists in the country next month to educate them on the penalties on all forms of musical infringements.
He said this would guide against rancour amongst musicians and enhance some level of creativity among them.
He urged artists to desist from picking lines music by different artists to produce their own full-fledged songs, noting that such act would reduce their creativity.
“We are going to have a seminar for musicians to understand that infringing on other musician properties attract some serious sanctions and will be taken seriously henceforth,” he said
NAN reports that Mr Clement Ige, the manager of KSA had alleged at a roundtable discourse that the duo used lyrics from KSA’s discography in their hit songs without due authorisation.
He said that the duo did not give appropriate credit to KSA, the original owner of the lyrics.
He said that Small Doctor in his 2017 hit record ‘Penalty’, took the musical line: ‘ijó tí m’ojó l’àná, tí wọn n’pariwo, oni nkọ, ola nkọ’ from KSA’s song
Davido in his breakthrough single, ‘Damiduro’ used KSA’s lyrics but he did not get it right because he did not ask for permission from KSA.
Davido sang “Kuluso ewe, agbagba ewe”, which was a misinterpretation of the actual line of the song, `Seleru agbo, agbara agbo’.
Ige said that he knew all these because the songs were composed by KSA and him.
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