GIST: When will Psquare & Others Pay For Their Theft? - Etcetera

After Robin Thicke’s hit “Blurred Lines” permeated American popular culture early 2013, questions were raised about the originality of the song, particularly the

composition in the background and the rhythm section. The Gaye estate, which represents the late Marvin Gaye’s two children, Frankie and Nona, sued Thicke for his song on the grounds that it sounded too similar to Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got to Give It Up.” Robin Thicke is being choked right now by the long arm of the American law for $7.3 million. This is something that has been considered a non-issue in Nigeria for decades and still counting. The likes of Psquare, Tuface, Cobhams Asuquo, Terry G, Sammy Okposo, Davido, Sean Tizzle, Banky W, etc. have committed various forms of copyright infringement and the fact that nobody have been made to pay for this wicked act in Nigeria is still a mystery. I have heard several uninformed Nigerian artists say “How could a song be stolen if it had different lyrics?”

Every single song in the world has two distinct copyrights — one for the performance and one for the song itself. Here’s how those sides stack up:

    √ Sound recording: This is the license needed for the actual song played. This license is usually between the artist, the record label that represents them, and the company trying to play the song.

   √ Musical composition: This is the license that covers everything else, including the people who wrote the song, and anyone who manipulates the composition of the song. This license gets paid no matter who sings the song. So if an artist covers a song, the people who made that song possible (i.e. the songwriters) still get paid.

In Robin Thicke’s case, the Gaye family argued Thicke had stolen the musical composition. That means that Gaye’s voice, the percussion, and the backing vocalists could not be considered in the trial. Only the music of the song that Gaye originally wrote could be considered.

Basically, the sheet music was what was at stake here. The family couldn’t play the recordings side-by-side in court because the judge worried that the performances of the songs might sway the jury. Eventually, the Gaye family was allowed to play a stripped-down version of the song for the jury. We have had similar cases of music theft in Nigeria but nothing came of it. During one of my visits to Cape town, South Africa, I was invited to an interactive session with a couple of other South African acts, It felt embarrassed to be asked how we have managed with the amount of lawlessness and copyrights infringement issues in Nigeria. There weren’t asking because overlaps in music don’t happen in their country, but in their case, artists are mandated to seek permission or face the full wrath of the law. Just this year singer Tom Petty hinted to Sam Smith that he was considering suing for similarities between Smith’s “Stay with Me” and Petty’s “Won’t Back Down.” He told Smith, probably because Smith is a young artist with a lot to lose, they “settled amicably out of court” with Smith just adding Petty to the songwriting credits and promising him a percent of the money made. The catch here is, Smith added him to the song credit and remit a chunk of the proceeds.

The reality is that it’s fairly easy to make songs that sound like other songs and make other artists upset because they feel like their art is being capitalized on. The issue with Nigerian artists is that most of the songs have more than just rhythm in common. In many cases, artists have lifted both lyrics and melodies of other songs. If this madness doesn’t stop, talented Nigerian artists will continue to beg to put food on their table. If this doesn’t explain why Majek Fashek was seen begging at Maryland bus stop a couple of weeks back, then I wonder what does.