Danny Young files N200m Copyright Infringement Suit Against Tiwa Savage

Popular afro-pop music singer, Ajibola Olumuyiwa Danladi, aka
Danny Young, has filed a N200 million lawsuit against Tiwa Savage
and Mavins Records for alleged copyright infringement.

The singer decided to take legal action against Tiwa and her
record label, Mavin for allegedly unlawfully using lyrics of his
2009 hit single, ‘Oju Ti Won’, in her latest song titled ‘One’.

The lawsuit (Suit No: FHC/L/CS/230/2019) which was filed at the
Federal High Court, Lagos, on February 13, 2019, is being brought
to public notice for the first time.

Recall that Danny Young had called out Tiwa on social media,
accusing her of sampling his song without seeking due permission
from him, causing Youtube to take down the video of the song, but
he was attacked by Tiwa’s fans who accused him of seeking cheap
public attention.

However, after due consultations, YouTube restored the video on
Sunday, describing Danny Young’s petition as ‘unfounded’.

While sharing the news of the lawsuit, the singer said he was
forced to take legal action against his Tiwa because she ignored
him when he reached out to her.

“Tiwa, I know people love you, even me. But I still have to sue
you because you stole my shit. A simple dialogue would have solved
this but you preferred it this way. Now we will be in court
discussing some N200,000,000 damages”, he said.

In a statement, the singer’s Lawyer, Principal Attorney at
Creative Legal, Justin Ige, explained why the case was instituted
against Tiwa Savage and Mavin Records. “Piracy is bad enough, but
it is perhaps worse when creative people appear to completely
disrespect the intellectual property rights of fellow creatives.
Such conduct should not be without due consequences.

A lay man may not understand what we are fighting for as it is
more technical than just the lyrics. Nigeria is a place where
writers do not get credits from the artiste they wrote songs for
because the artiste wants to get all the glory alone. Producers
also do not know that they have a right to royalties even after
being paid for the beat. If I contribute one word to your
composition, I automatically have a right to credits as one of the
writers. This is a world standard and anything less is unacceptable
especially when coming from an artiste that has international
exposure”, he said.

Meanwhile, as at the time of this report, Tiwa, her management
or Mavin Records were yet to respond or release an official
statement on the matter.