THE Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, has affirmed the N5,450,152,125 judgment obtained by the Musical Copyright Society Nigeria Limited/GTE against Multichoice Nigeria Limited.

The Appeal Court, in a lead judgment by Justice Obande Ogbuinya, affirmed the N5.4bn judgment delivered on January 19, 2018 by Justice Mohammed Idris, then of the Federal High Court in Lagos, in favour of the MCSN against Multichoice.

Justice Ogbuinya’s judgment was consented to by Justices Gabriel Kolawole and Balkisu Aliyu.

Multichoice had in 2011 approached the Federal High Court in Lagos, seeking a declaration that it was not under any obligation to pay royalties to the MCSN “for materials used in programming or content on the DSTV bouquet.”

Multichoice contended that the MCSN was not licensed by the Nigerian Copyright Commission to act as a collecting society.

In response, the MCSN did not only oppose the suit, it also filed a counter-claim, wherein it demanded N5.4bn in “general and aggravated damages arising from the plaintiff’s flagrant use of works forming part of the respondent’s repertoire between January 6, 2006 and January 5, 2012.”

The MCSN maintained that it had exclusive licence over the musical works used by Multichoice, as the said works had been assigned to it (MCSN) by two international organisations – Performing Rights Society; and Mechanical Copyright Protection Society.

In his January 19, 2018 judgment, Justice Idris not only dismissed Multichoice’s suit against the MCSN, he also went on to grant MCSN’s counter-claim of N5.4bn against Multichoice.

Displeased, Multichoice headed for the Court of Appeal, contending that Justice Idris miscarried and perverted justice in the case.

But the Court of Appeal, in Justice Ogbuinya’s lead judgment, disagreed with Multichoice and upheld the judgment of Justice Idris, who is now a Court of Appeal Justice.
Source:punchng

hmm someone just cashed out