ENTERTAIMENT INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA

Entertainment been one major area where people make a lot of money in Nigeria in recent time, considering the high level of unemployment among youths hardly will you meet ten (10) youths and nine (9) out of them won’t be into one area or the other in the entertainment industry from acting , singing, producing, scriptwriting, editing, event planning and so on, but I can tell you that few or none of them have a lawyer representing them.

I hope the ongoing litigation and court injunction between Brymo and his former record label chocolate city will be an eye opener to all in the industry.

If you will ever make a living in the entertainment industry then you need the service of a lawyer who will pay attention to every legal aspect of it to protect your interest at all time.

As an entertainer, take musician for example every song you produce, you need a copyright and if not copyright then royalties on your jobs so that when such jobs are used you get paid, it is only in Nigeria that hit songs are used as sound tracks in movies and all the producer gets is an acknowledgment i.e. we thank Sir Shina Peters, is this all he is entitled to for job that took him so much to produce?

So how do you get paid and have control over what rightly belong to you (your jobs), then the service of a lawyer is required.

Why do I need a lawyer?

As an entertainer you need a lawyer to enter into valid contracts on your behalf, so that whenever there’s a breach of such contract your right will be adequately protected and enforced,failure to get a lawyer to help review contracts and you enter into one ignorantly such contractual agreement remain binding on you because ignorant is not an excuse in law neither will uproar by your numerous fans on the street affect the decision of the court in enforcing such contracts.

A lawyer will understand the legal implications of your industry while helping you to promote yourself without sacrificing your artistic integrity.

They will represent clients from intellectual law capacity, defending victims of copyright infringement, individual deprived of their unique creations and innovations.

What are the rights open to you as an entertainer?

Despite the fact that entertainers who attain a degree of prestige or celebrity status in their respective talents naturally relinquish certain individual rights to privacy, still you have a constitutional right in law to protection from blackmail, violent threats ,undue deprivation towards personal and intellectual properties, targeted defamation to mention a few.

For those who don’t know what copyright is, this falls under the intellectual property law. It is used to protect the owner from undue deprivations towards original creations providing immunities against various violations involving ’reproduction’ ‘public performance’ ‘distribution’ ‘reproduction’ ’adapting a novel to screen play’

Royalties are usage based payment made y one party to another for the right to an ongoing use of an assets (intellectual property)

Oyenike Alliyu-Adebiyi Llb (hons)BL