The Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) will open its ultramodern complex, COSON House, on May 20, 2017. This was made known on Tuesday by chairman of COSON, Tony Okoroji at a media briefing held at COSON corporate office, Ikeja, Lagos.
Okoroji said the building is almost ready to be unveiled in May. “It is instructive that we did not get one Naira assistance from the federal government or any Nigerian government at all to finance COSON House. We did not get one dollar from any donor agency or any foreign institution to build COSON House. It is also instructive that we did not take a loan of any type from any bank to finance COSON House. I am proud to say that when the ultra- modern COSON House is commissioned on May 20, we will not be owing a penny on the building or on any of the facilities contained therein. The building and facilities within COSON House fully belong to musicians across Nigeria and other stakeholders in the music industry, forever without any encumbrance whatsoever,” he said.
According to him, COSON has just set up a building that will house its corporate headquarters. The complex comes with compact facilities for study, research, training, retraining and continuous dissemination of information that will ensure that the concept of intellectual property takes root in Nigeria.
“We want Nigeria to become an important player in the new global knowledge economy. In COSON House, we have created a hub for all those who want to understand the intriguing subject of copyright and other forms of intellectual property.”
In addition, he discussed COSON’s reaction to the reported orders of the Attorney-General of the Federation that Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria Ltd (MCSN) be approved as a collecting society
On the reported approval of Musical Copyright Society Nigeria (MCSN), Chief Okoroji was emphatic that MCSN has not been approved. According to him, there are laid down processes for the approval of a collective management organization in Nigeria.
“It is not just that due process was not followed, no process whatsoever was followed. This is like building something on nothing. It cannot stand.”
