The new song, Popori, by Northside Entertainment signee, Cynthia Morgan, is at the moment experiencing a hitch, as a Federal High Court has passed an injunction restraining the airplay and distribution of the song on account of copyrighted title.
The judgement which was delivered on December 29, 2014, was the outcome of suit no: FHC/L/CS/1987/14, wherein another songstress, Queen Ure claimed the former infringed on the copyright of her earlier song titled Porpori.
Going by the title of the songs which sound alike, the court reasoned that Morgan, an artiste under Jude Okoye’s label, cannot continue with that title, as it amounted to passoff.
It therefore ruled that Northside Entertainment Ltd and all other agents, including promoters, Disc Jockeys, radio stations, TV stations and bloggers among others, should desist from further publishing and distributing to the public, the music track/single/album titled Popori by Morgan.
Further on that, the court, among other things has empowered Ure to sue anyone in the business of recording, publishing or distributing the said work.
Ure’s first video which was released in November 2012, was titled Porpori, so was her 15-track album launched on December 29, 2012. She later released another video in March 2014, titled Porpori Dance alongside other singles and videos.
According to Ure, the sound recording of all works were registered with the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), for which a copyright certificate was issued to her in March 2013.
Morgan’s version, which the court has asked her to relinguish, was released in November 2014, a year after Ure got certificate for her sound recordings.
Speaking on this development, Ure said the reason she went to court was to preserve and protect her intellectual property as well as her contribution to the music industry. She noted that by so doing, artistes will begin to respect each others’ works and will also begin to appreciate the act of registering their works, and protected them from infringement.
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