Copyright Infringement: Danny Young files N200 million lawsuit against Tiwa Savage

Nigerian musician, Ajibola Danladi, aka Danny Young, has filed a N200 million lawsuit against Tiwa Savage and Mavins Records for copyright infringement.

Danny Young’s lawyer, Creative Legal, sued Tiwa and her record label for allegedly unlawfully copying his (Danny Young’s) 2009 single, Oju Tiwon, in her (Tiwa’s) 2018 single titled, ‘One’.

The latter, which was produced by Killertunez and co-written by Wale Turner and Tiwa Savage, is available on music streaming platforms.

Legendary Nollywood actress, Iya Rainbow, plays Tiwa’s mom in the song’s video.

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.

Danny Young called out the MTV Europe award winner for sampling a line from his 2009 song ‘Oju Ti Won’ on her latest track ‘One’ in November 2018.

In a video posted on his Instagram page at the time, the singer made an effort to show similarities between the two records.

But he was bashed by Tiwa’s fans who accused him of seeking attention.

The singer said he was forced to take legal action against his colleague because he was snubbed after reaching out to her.

Shortly after his outcry, the music video for the song was removed by social media platform, YouTube, following the filing of a copyright claim from a third party, Danny Young.

Interestingly, the video was restored on Sunday by YouTube. Tiwa made the announcement by sharing a statement by YouTube which described Danny Young’s petition as ‘unfounded’.

Explaining why the case had to be instituted in a statement on Sunday, Principal Attorney at Creative Legal, Justin Ige, said, “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”

He explained that Danny Young wants to set an example for people in the creative industry to recognise their rights even in its simplest form.

The statement partly read, “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.”

Mavin Record is yet to react to this development as at press time.

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Check out the videos by both artistes