Nigerian Movie Producer Drags DSTV To Court

   Cable Tv giant DSTV has been dragged to court by a Switzerland based Nigerian movie producer JoeAihende.

  

Trouble started about four years ago when Joe Aihende and his companyMotherland Ventures and General Services located at 58, Aerodrome Close, OffEkewan Road, Benin City, Edo State also with a business office located at 29,Olufemi Street, Off Ogunlana Drive, Surulere, Lagos was approached with theintent of buying his movie titled “Check Point”. The plan then was for theproducer to sell the broadcast right of his movie to DSTV, while they use it ascontent on their movie channels, amongst which is African Magic. 

However, trouble started when

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Joe was informed bythe management of DSTV that the movie would be broken into parts one and two.According to a reliable source, Joe Aihende did not like this idea and so hechanged the initial agreement of selling the movie and returned to his base in Zurich, Switzerland.But Joe was shocked when friends in thecountry informed him that his movie had actually been aired on African Magic,one of the channels of DSTV. Joe however, revealed that he was astonished whenhe contacted Multi Choice on the development and was informed that the moviehad actually been sold to them by Joe’s duly authorized representatives oneToni Anih, working with the company name Africa Mega Entertainment and yetanother guy, Andrew Ohirien Coker who actually sold the movie’s broadcastingright for five years. 

While the case is currently in court, DSTV ismaintaining the stand that Anih, actually sold the movie to Multi ChoiceNigeria Limited maintaining that if Joe had any problem he should sort it outwith those he allegedly sold the movie to before relocating to his base.Trouble reportedly started on the 8th of September 2007, when DSTV aired  the movie“Check Point”, produced by Joe Aihende without his permission. 

Anassociate of the producer revealed that Joe Aihende decided to drag MultiChoice Nigeria to court over the infringement of his copy right in the movieCheck Point, when he realized that all his anticipated earnings from themarketing of the movie had been lost. The producer is said to be suffering fromemotional break down having obtained a huge loan from a bank in Zurich, Switzerlandto prosecute the movie. Joe Aihende is currently indebted to the tune of 50,000Swiss Francs to the earlier stated bank, GE Money Bank at Zurich, which was meant for effectively promotingthe movie. Till date, Joe is still indebted to the bank and does not see a wayout of the dilemma. 

However, reacting to this development, via a legaldocument, DSTV revealed that they hadnegotiated and acquired the broadcast rights of over 6,000 films and other suchcontents in Nigeria and across Africa in the past and that they usually rely on a variety of documents when acquiring rights to films in Nigeria, including, butnot limited to the censorship certificate or other documents from the NationalCensors Board, which has the name of the producer endorsed on it. Infurtherance to their claims on the issue, DSTV revealed that it is a commonthing to find producers relying on agents to collect monies on their behalf forthe rights acquired regarding their content, which is typical of Joe Aihende’scase.