Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) has unveiled Nigeria’s first online licensing platform dubbed CLAP. The introduction of the device before a sizeable turn-out of musicians, stakeholders, and music lovers Tuesday, November 8, 2016 was a proof of the collective management orgnisation’s commitment made six years ago at its inception to be constantly innovative and to do all in its power to become the leading light in that field in Africa.
That much was revealed by COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji while delivering his speech at the occasion even as he added that everyone in Nigeria could bear witness to the fact that at COSON there had been relentless efforts to protect the intellectual property rights of musicians and investors in the music industry in Nigeria and ensure that music industry stakeholders earn commensurate income from the enjoyment and exploitation by different individuals and organizations of their musical works and sound recordings.
He further stated that more than any other organization in Nigeria’s history, COSON had repeatedly gone to court to protect the interest of its members, assignors and affiliates.
Chief Okoroji
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stressed that as the Nigerian economy faced severe challenges and the need to diversify the economy became glaring, it was even more urgent that Nigerians understood that they could no longer afford to put to waste the products of the creative ingenuity of the people, noting that it was also important that Nigerians understood that the brick and mortar economy was gone; the days of one hundred dollars a barrel of crude oil were also gone.
He insisted that the knowledge and digital economy was here with the Nigerian people and that the pillar of this new economy was the respect for intellectual property rights.
Said he: ‘‘The respect for intellectual property rights ensures that those of our citizens who are employed in our creative industries earn good income, pay adequate taxes, provide employment to millions of our citizens, export their products to other lands, generate goodwill for our nation and ensure that our economy is booming’’.
On the launch of COSON Licensing Application Platform (CLAP), Chief Okoroji said, ‘‘Thousands of Nigerian businesses are aware of the value of music. Without the support of music, their operations will not run smoothly and there will be little or no profit. Music is therefore a critical ingredient in driving the success of these businesses. As we launch CLAP today, our objective is to make it easy and stress free for users of music in Nigeria to get the copyright license they require to legally play music in their business environments and facilities. Without leaving the comfort of your business, you can log on to www.clapng.com and obtain a copyright licence that allows you to deploy music in your business without exposing you to the dangers of copyright infringement in just 6 simple steps’’.
‘‘Let me welcome every user of music everywhere in Nigeria, especially the hotels, restaurants, clubs, event centres, the organizers of road shows, salons, barber shops, organizers of exhibitions and trade fairs, fitness centres and gyms, malls, shops, retail outlets, offices, transporters to CLAP, the easy to use internet COSON Licensing Application Platform’’, Chief Tony Okoroji concluded.
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