THE move by stakeholders in the Nigerian motion picture industry to secure government license for a Collective Management Organisation (CMO) has received a boost, with the approval of the Audio Visual Rights Society (AVRS).
The society will be to the film industry, what the popular Copyright Right Society of Nigeria (COSON) is, to the music industry.
At a press conference announcing the take-off of the AVRS in Lagos, Tuesday, Chairman of the society, Mahmood Ali-Balogun, said that henceforth, the illegal use of intellectual property by individuals and organisations for commercial purposes, without the consent and benefit to right owners, must stop.
“We want to appeal to every stakeholder, especially users of audio visual works that it is no longer business as usual. Compensation must be paid for every use of our intellectual property by every broadcast media or organisations that use our works for profitability. Goal posts have moved; licences must be obtained for the exploitation of films and broadcast works. The labour of our creators past and present must not only be in vain but must be compensated now,” he said.
According to him, people play audio-visual works and even copy them and use them for commercial purposes without permission. He added that, in some cases, some broadcast stations air these works without the consent of the right owners or even do so outside agreed arrangements.
“For our colleagues in the IP business, it is time to jump unto the train before it gathers speed. Yes, for us to have a relevant and working CMO more advocacy and enlightenment is required but the time to join is now,” Ali-Balogun said, adding that membership is free at the moment.
The event had a huge turnout of filmmakers, some of them directors of the society. There were also officials of regulation agencies like Mrs. Duro Oni of Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) Lagos office and Mr. Michael Akpan, a director at the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC).
Ali-Balogun recalled at the event, that, the process began at a consultation meeting organised by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the NCC and NFC in April, 2012, with a follow up meeting in September of the same year.
“The unanimous decision of the participants at those meetings was to establish a CMO for film and TV rights holders; that is a collective management that would benefit all rights holders in the industry, both economically and from efficiency perspective,” he said, adding that the collective management as a collaborative effort works on not-for-profit basis, as the revenue collected by a CMO is money that it holds in trust for rights holders.
Ali-Balogun, a foremost movie producer/director and Chairman of the AVRS, went ahead to introduce his team, which include, Emem Akinbairo, a lawyer with specialty in copyright matters as the General Manager, while the likes of Prince Osita Okeke, Chief Gabriel Okoye, Francis Onwuchie, Emem Isong, Fidelis Duker, Andy Amenechi, Bond Emeruwa, Jide Kosoko, Dr. Ahmad Sarari, Tunji Bamishigbin, Patrick Doyle, Emmanuel Isikaku, Chief Aina Kushoro and Peddie Okao are directors.
According to him, everything is set to make the AVRS to hit the ground running.
He said: “We have an office and a Board of Directors in place, and I am privileged to be the chairman. We have a management team headed by the General Manager, Emem Akinbairo. We have an accountant, a licensing manager, a licensing officer and a utility assistant. We have been carrying out market analysis to identify users and buyers of the works of our members or people whom we will possibly license to use our members’ works because they have agreed to pay for the rights. For now, we have the office and management set up.”
The forum provided the opportunity for actors, filmmakers and other stakeholders to ask questions, especially on royalty distribution. Balogun explained that all it required was for them to register with the AVRS and list works whose rights they want the society to manage. He said although the executive producers of film works get the bulk of the royalty, directors and actors in key movie roles also get from the residuals accruing to such works.
According to the AVRS boss, the money is pooled into an account and AVRS takes only 30 percent of the money as stipulated in the law for administration, while the remaining 70 percent goes to the right owner.
“Because there are other contributors to the works, the producer or executive producer cannot continue to take royalty in perpetuity; so, you must be ready to release some of that residual compensation to other people involved in making that work. These people include artistes, technicians and so on. In other climes, all these people are recognised in the area of CMO. It has been in our laws, but until COSON and the likes came, no one knew that even those other than the artistes ought to get something. So, the other group of people that will benefit, aside the financial partners, are the people we call the creative collaborators like the directors, actors and writers. Actors, in this case, are the lead and supporting actors. You can’t possibly pay everyone. Only the people with significant contributions to the production will get something from what gets to the financial partners. So, AVRS will take care of the financial partners and the creative collaborators,” he said.
Although the licence took about nine months to come, Akpan said it was to ensure that AVRS met all requirements. “It was a painstaking process of verification and assessment, before the commission came to the conclusion that AVRS has complied with all relevant statutory requirements, under the Copyright Act, cap C28, Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004 and the Copyright (CMO Regulations) 2007.
