Mayo Ayilaran is the CEO of the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria, MCSN. He has a rich and varied experience in the business, for more than three decades he has been running the foremost collecting society. In this interview, the veteran administrator discussed a range of issues about the administration of copyright, and how Society has evolved over the years.
He spoke to BEATS Publisher, Ladi Ayodeji:
Question: Mr. Ayilaran, welcome to the BEATS interview. You have been in the saddle in the MCSN for years. What has been your greatest achievement?
Answer: Thank you very much. Our achievements are hydra-headed or multi-faceted and it is very difficult to classify any one of them as the greatest. For instance, being able to stay focussed and steer MCSN from assumed death to a vibrant existence is a great achievement. You’ll recall there are times when MCSN was considered dead and buried, times when we were variously charged to court and remanded in prison custody not once, not twice at both Ikoyi and Kirikiri prisons.
We were facing charges in various courts from Lagos to Abuja on the same and alternate days, but God steeled us and made us remain unmoved until He turned the situation fully around for us. There are also achievements on the legal front, where there have been conflicting judgments on our status up to the Court of Appeal but the Supreme Court of Nigeria in two successive judgments put an end to these conflicting judgments and resolved everything in our favour. MCSN has created and set major precedents in copyright jurisprudence that hardly would you find any copyright case that would not rely on
MCSN’s cases. This is another great achievement. On another front, MCSN secured the biggest copyright award ever in the history of copyright administration and enforcement in Nigeria and perhaps in the whole of Africa. The settlement arrived at from the award resulted perhaps in the largest single payment for copyright in Nigeria in the sum of N2.5 Billion.
What MCSN collected and is distributing within the first three or four years of its license and approval as a Collective Management Organisation is far more than what any other organisation with that status collected for more than 10 years put together in Nigeria. That is another achievement. We have started to restore hope in our creators (composers, authors, and musicians in general) by commencing royalty payments to them. That the musicians are happy is a great achievement to me. In all these, I give all glory to God Almighty who made all these and more possible.
Question: Many people are wondering why there’s so much division within the copyright community.
Answer: I do not agree that there is any more division within the copyright community; rather it is people who do not understand how the law and due process work that imputes disputes into the system. The law is very clear who can own control or administer copyright. The law is also clear on what qualifies someone to become a key player or CMO in the copyright system.
It is when people circumvent the law and the due process that bring about conflict and division. How could someone come out just because he was head of an organisation and has some connection think that he can bring about anything to happen within the copyright system outside the provision of the law? Such behaviour would lead to conflict and division but thank God who has used MCSN to cure that malady.
MCSN fought its cases right from the Federal High Court to the Supreme Court and the copyright community is united today more than ever before. MCSN is now working very closely with the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), Audio-Visual Rights Society (AVRS), Reproduction Rights Society of Nigeria (Reproving), Performing Musicians’ Employers’ Association of Nigeria (PMAN), and other bodies within the copyright community and we are all now speaking with one voice as everyone has realised that a wrong done to one is a wrong done to all.
Question: Recently, your society donated a bus to the Nigerian Copyright Commission, NCC. Isn’t that an obligatory favour, considering that the commission is a regulatory agency?
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Answer: Far from it, our gesture is not an obligatory favour and it can never be. I would start by referring to Professor Jerry Gana in his days as the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture when he said that if you are a teacher, you teach well if you are a leader, you lead well, etc; and now if you are a regulator, you regulate well. The NCC as a regulator has over the years been complaining that the Commission is underfunded and hence it could not perform its constitutional and statutory roles to regulate the copyright system and confront piracy. It was a shame that an organisation which was regulated, licensed, and approved by the Commission to operate as a collective management organization for more than 10 years was making jest of the Commission as having offices infested by snakes and rats, so unkempt that it could not allow his dogs to dwell in such a place. We in MCSN come from a very different orientation, as we know and believe that we do not exist or operate in isolation of our environment and others within. We took stock of all the situation and environment and decided on how to improve the situation for the benefit of all including ourselves. We are not of the myopic belief that Government must do everything for us, but we know and believe that when we improve our overall environment by assisting the regulatory agency in their most dare needs, we would be assisting ourselves and everyone in the system. The bus and computers that MCSN gave to the NCC are not to do MCSN’s job alone, but to work for the entire copyright community, fight piracy and conduct its regulatory works in the most modern way. If in the next one to two years we did not notice any improvement in the system, we would be well-positioned to talk and call the NCC to account. We have only tried in our little way to see what we can do for our nation rather than asking or waiting for our nation to do everything for us. I believe you can fill any reasonable gap remaining.
Question: What have you been doing to improve the welfare of your members?
Answer: Our number one obligation to our members is to collect their royalties and return the monies collected to them in the form of distributions after covering our costs. That is their legal wages and once we can do this effectively and efficiently, our members’ welfare is being improved. We were doing this regularly before our operations were totally encumbered from about 2009, but now we are back on the block and our members have started to receive royalties dated from the year 2006. We would continue to work and improve on this to improve the welfare of our members.
Question: Which is better for Nigeria: a single copyright body or multiple?
Answer: This depends on the level of awareness and understanding of the stakeholders and the users at large. We need to ask how deep the knowledge of the stakeholders about copyright holding and administration is. How many people understand that copyright holding is like a real property holding like land, house, and other properties? Once people understand these, the copyright body can be as many as they come. It is frustrating when you go out to ask for the respect of your copyright and a broadcasting station owner tells you that he has been confronted with so many taxes and local government rates and levies. It has always been MCSN’s advocacy that copyright administration should voluntarily evolve rather than be forced into one or two bodies because through evolution, not more than one or at most two bodies would evolve and stay at the end of the day. The power that then does not understand our clear language and chose the route they took but now the outcomes speak volumes of their understanding and competence.
Question: Do you agree that copyright education is still very low in Nigeria and needs to be improved?
Answer: Yes, I quite agree. We are still at the first mile where we still have more than 100 miles to cover. There must be a deliberate budget and effort by the government (I mean the Federal Government because copyright is on the exclusive list) and the stakeholders’ bodies like MCSN to fund copyright information and education. I say this because Intellectual Property especially copyright is the bedrock of the modern economy and wealth. What the modern billionaires around the world rely on to get their wealth is IP, particularly copyright. Once the government and stakeholders make this conscious move then our nation and its creators would be opening a wide door for wealth creation and ownership.
Question: How well have you adopted technology in the collection of dues?
Answer: MCSN has been at the forefront of deploying modern technologies in its operations way back since 1996. I recall, MCSN was part of the few organisations around the world (about 3 or 4 in Africa) which introduced fiche International (microfilms) in the administration of copyright. I can show you a sample of the fiche but unfortunately, the reader machine was part of our equipment carted away during one of the uninformed raids carried out on our Society in 2007 or thereabout. We have been involved in another technology known as C-Basic with which by just a push of a button on your computer, the information about any particular work or artist is displayed on your system for further enforcement, collection, or distribution action. We are part of the world Common Information System Network (CIS-Net) which captures any work from any country in the world for easy tracking, administration, and enforcement in any country that has a copyright law. MCSN contributes to this international database and sister databases. Locally, MCSN has developed, in partnership with local vendors, the most modern technology known as GoCreate for the capturing, monitoring, tracking, and analysing the use of any works on any platform across the media. It is both online and offline effectively. This particular technology also enables MCSN’s members to monitor the performance of their works on the media plane and able to project their income from royalties.
Question: What is your relationship with foreign copyright organizations?
Answer: Very cordial and robust. In the past, we were tied to the aprons of only the Performing Rights Society (PRS) and Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) of Britain, but now we have signed direct reciprocal representation agreements with many societies across the world and the list is growing by the day. As of today, we have not less than 10 such agreements waiting for our lawyers’ vetting before we put pen to paper. This is necessary for us to put our members and country’s interest in front. In each of the contracts, we ensure that our members and country are not short-changed in those foreign countries and in our own countries. We ensure that there is equity and fair play in every case.
Question: What’s your next-level vision for society?
Answer: Our vision for MCSN is to be the best that we can possibly be and be ranked among the best in the world. Most importantly, we want to connect our members’ creativity with prosperity in the not-distant future.
Question: What’s your message to your members and other target audiences?
Answer: Do I really have any other message outside what has been said so far? In any case, I would advise that our members should get more involved in the business of their creativity and the activities of the Society. Be the eyes, ears, and mouth of the Society everywhere they are; while users of music or any copyrighted work should first seek and obtain the required license or permission before they exploit such work in their premises to save themselves and the owners of the premises from serious legal consequences.
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