Legendary high-life musician, Sir Victor Uwaifo has accused Simi of stealing his intellectual property, the song ‘Joromi’. The renowned singer fondly called Guitar boy ,said Simi is in trouble over the usage of ‘Joromi’ in her song.
Uwaifo in an encounter with Sahara Reporters noted that his song, ‘Joromi’ which was released in 1968, has fallen victim of intellectual property theft. He isn’t happy that Simi did not give him credit after the release of her 2017 version of the song.
According to him:”Copyright is a very serious business and the contravention of copyright laws is more serious than you can imagine.Most people still believe that someone can just pick somebody’s work, which we call intellectual property right, and use it for his own benefit of the detriment of the composer, the man who actually created the work.
“You know it takes time to create a work; it takes a lot of research to be able to come out with a piece of work. You know one single track is equivalent to research journal and then a whole record is equivalent to a book publication, so people don’t understand it they don’t know.
“You don’t just wake up in the university then you just put anything down and you call it a journal or a book. It takes a lot of research to be able to do one piece of music. The composition, the lyrics, the music, the score, the arrangement, the production and booking of the studio all cost money, and someone will just come and take the work and use it as his own or probably do an advert on it.”
When asked about his intention to take legal actions against Simi, he said:”One after the other. I cannot just take everybody to court at the same time. I don’t know whether he or she; I know she is but I know somebody is behind it. An LP was sent as a compliment; I’m still looking at it but they were planning to come to Benin to see me; up till now, they haven’t come, so I’m just putting that one on hold.
‘Joromi’ is a franchise; the name never existed before. Benin doesn’t have “J” in their language; if any started with ‘J’ in Benin then it is fake. All consonant words start with vowel sounds. For example, if I use the trademark of one of these soft drinks, it is wrong. So Simi is in trouble.”
Copyright theft: Tekno remixed ‘Jogodo’ without our consent- Danfo Drivers