A federal high court sitting in Lagos on
the 29th of Dec 2014 Via the suit no: FHC/L/CS/1987/14 has given an
injunction restraining Cynthia Morgan an artiste under the label of Psquare’s
senior brother and Manager Jude Okoye led Northside Entertainment Ltd and all
other agents, promoters, Dj’s, radio stations, tv stations, bloggers and every
other person from publishing and distributing to the public the music
track/single/album titled popori by Cynthia Morgan which is an infringement on
Queen Ure’s copyright.
The court order among many other things
empowers Queen Ure to sue anyone in the business of recording, publishing,
distributing to the public the music track/single/album titled popori which is
an infringement on her copyright.
It will be recalled that Queen Ure’s first
video which dropped Nov 2012 was titled Porpori ( a word she made up) and her
15 track album launched Dec 29, 2012 is
titled Porpori, she equally dropped another “porpori” video march 2014 titled
Porpori Dance alongside other singles and videos. On releasing Porpori, she had
the sound recording registered at the Nigerian copyright commission and a
copyright certificate was issued to her in march 2013. In November 2014, Cynthia Morgan who is
signed under the Jude okoye led label Northside entertainment released a single
which she titled Popori and now the court has ordered her to relinquish the use
of Popori as a title to her single.
Queen Ure says what she has done is nothing
personal but preservation and protection of her intellectual property as well
as her contribution to the music industry, so that artists can begin to respect
each others’ work and to start appreciating the act of registering their work
so they can be protected in a case of infringement.
The court order which has be applauded by
music enthusiast across Nigeria is seen as a wakeup call to all artistes who
engage in copyright infringement and even outright pirating of artistes works
without due authorization .
With this latest court judgment any radio station,
television stations, clubs etc that uses the work is liable and will be prosecuted.