Court approves MCSN N5.2bn lawsuit against Multichoice

John Ugbe (Multichoice)

A Lagos State Federal High Court has dismissed the preliminary objection filed by media Company Multichoice Nigeria Limited against a N5.2bn counter-claim brought against it by the Musical Copyright Society Nigeria (MCSN) for the alleged illegal use of its works from 2006 till date.
It all started in 2011 when Multichoice earlier filed a writ of summons in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1091/11 against MCSN, praying the court to grant a perpetual injunction stopping MCSN from asking or demanding from Multichoice to obtain copyright licence for the broadcast and communication to the public of musical works on the radio and television channels operated and distributed by the media company within Nigeria ‘because MCSN was not licensed or approved by the Nigerian Copyright Commission as a collecting society’.
MCSN then filed a counterclaim of N5.2 billion for the infringement of its copyright by Multichoice Nigeria from 2006 till date. The copyright society argues that Section 52 and Section 3 of the Fifth Schedule of the Copyright Act 2004 duly recognizes and save the rights of MCSN which it has acquired under several contracts.
The stage is thus set for trial on November 1, 2012.
MultiChoice is a South African company which operates the DStv Satellite Television service, the main satellite TV service in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is owned by the Naspers media conglomerate.
 BusinessNews