The Musical Copyright Society Nigeria Ltd/Gte (MCSN) has warned the general public and all who exploit music in their businesses not to pay imposters for licence for the use of music.
According to a statement issued by MCSN, the warning is necessary now as a certain organisation and individuals are defrauding unsuspecting users of music in the name of granting them licence, which they have no authority or approval to do so.
The statement further disclosed that the defunct Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) is the organisation being used by a certain individual to defraud the public in the name of granting licence for the use of music.
It stated also that COSON’s licence to operate as a Collective Management Organization (CMO) has expired since 2018 when it (the licence) was suspended and it eventually expired by effluxion of time. Aside from the expiration of the licence, the Federal High Court on March 25, 2020, in a judgment by Justice Saidu ordered the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to strike off the name of COSON from the companies register in Nigeria. The judgment and consequential order of the Court of June 24, 2020, refusing the stay of execution of the judgment are still subsisting. The Federal High Court had also on June 21, 2021 ruled that COSON has no approval or licence to operate as a CMO, a ruling, which COSON went on to challenge at the Court of Appeal.
It noted that the Court of Appeal on July 6, 2026 in a unanimous decision affirmed the ruling of the Federal High Court and stated clearly that COSON had no licence in the first place before coming to court to seek injunction. ‘Only an existing and valid licence could be revoked and that there was no basis for granting an injunction restraining the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) from revoking a licence that no longer existed’.
It has since come to the notice of MCSN that COSON is all over the place defrauding innocent Nigerians of their hard-earned money in flagrant disobedience of the laws of the country.
In line with the above, MCSN has warned the public not to pay any monies to the defunct society as doing so will amount to sheer waste of resources as MCSN being the only approved Society to licence musical works for exploitation will come after any hotel, lounge, event centre, cinema, discotheque, bar, radio and television stations, telcos, digital and online platforms and any other entity that exploit music for its business without a licence from it (MCSN).
‘It has come to the notice of MCSN that an illegal body, COSON is all over the place defrauding unsuspecting Nigerians under the guise of licensing them for the exploitation of music. The public is hereby warned that COSON is an illegal body as its licence to operate as a CMO has expired since 2018 without a renewal. So, anybody or institution that deals with it, does so at its own risk,’ the statement concluded.