Justice I. N. Oweibo of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, on Thursday 16th June, 2022 granted a perpetual injunction restraining the Lagos-based City F.M. 105.1 and its agents, privies or servants from continuing to take and broadcast musical works and sound recordings belonging to the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), its members, assignors and affiliates without payment of all outstanding royalties.
Justice Oweibo’s judgment follows several recent judgments won by COSON in different divisions of the Federal High Court.
Considered Nigeria’s biggest copyright collective management organisation, COSON controls the largest amount of domestic and international musical works and sound recordings used in Nigeria.
Reacting to the development, the Chairman of COSON, Chief Tony Okoroji said, “I remain an unshakable believer in the immortal words of Martin Luther King Jr: ‘the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice
“We hope that others will learn that you cannot be openly stealing the intellectual property belonging to innocent creative citizens to be making money for yourself. At COSON, we strongly hope that such an era is gone forever in Nigeria”.