Asa slams Joeboy with a N300m copyright infringement suit

Nigerian ace singer and songwriter, Bukola Elemide, popularly known as Asa, has issued a copyright infringement notice to her colleague, Joseph Akinfenwa, aka Joeboy, over his recently-released song, “Contour”.

Joeboy shared a letter from Asa’s Lawyers containing claims of a copyright lawsuit relating to the creation of Joeboy’s “Contour” on his Instagram Story.

According to the letter from Asa’s attorneys, the composition of the song was developed by Asa at a recording session with Tempoe on September 22, 2020 and their client had denied Joeboy and Tempoe permission to use the composition.

Asa is requesting a settlement of 300,000,000 naira in damages as well as a 60% share of the split sheet as compensation for the harm.

Asa’s attorneys ordered that the music be removed from all DSPs within 24 hours. They also ordered that Joeboy and Tempoe apologize to their client for the copyright violation and seize any and all further infractions.

The notice dated September 30 read in part, ”It has been brought to our attention that your newly released song, Contour (the “Song”), infringes on the copyright of our Client, as recorded/captured in a musical composition (the “Composition”) which she created in a recording session, which took place on 22 September 2020, with the producer of the Song, Alageu Michael Chidozie (p.k.a Tempoe) in attendance.

“We, hereby, demand that you immediately remove the Song from all DSPs and any other platforms within twenty-four (24) hours of your receipt of this letter, with a written apology issued to our Client as well as halt any additional infringements of our Composition, including any other infringements.”