Deal sheet
- Status
- LIPO'S OWN DIRECTOR-GENERAL TOLD TWO SEPARATE PUBLIC PAYOUT EVENTS, NINE MONTHS APART, THAT THE MONEY COSOL GIVES ITS REGISTERED ARTISTS IS WELFARE, NOT ROYALTIES, EVEN THOUGH COSOL ITSELF INVOKED THE SAME ROYALTY LAW IN 2022 TO THREATEN A THIRD PARTY WITH A LAWSUIT.
- Type
- Licensing
- Parties
- Copyright Society of Liberia
- Amount
- LRD Not disclosed. No collection total and no distribution total, in Liberian dollars or any other currency, has been published by the Copyright Society of Liberia (COSOL) in any source checked, for any year between COSOL's 2020 operational start and 2026. The only enforcement-related figures on record are the penalties COSOL said in November 2022 it would seek against the organisers of the Liberia Music Awards; no settlement amount, judgment or collected sum from that threat was found in any later source.
- Rights covered
- STATUTORY COLLECTING-SOCIETY OPERATIONAL-STATUS RECORD ONLY. No master recording, composition or publishing right changes ownership, or is assigned, licensed, administered or distributed differently as a result of anything recorded here. Section 9.6(v) of Liberia's Intellectual Property Act, 2016 (adopted 14 June 2016) grants a copyright owner the exclusive right to authorise "public performance of the work." The 2016 Act itself created no collecting society to administer that right; the Copyright Society of Liberia (COSOL) was established three years later, in 2019, by an administrative regulation signed jointly by the Liberia Intellectual Property Office (LIPO) and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, as the secretariat and enforcement arm of LIPO's Copyright Department. A further 2021 administrative regulation (cited by COSOL as "the 2021 Administrative Regulation for Copyright License Tariff for the use of Music and Movies in Sound Recording") sets a tariff behind that right at Section 5.3. This record documents what named officials from COSOL and LIPO have said, at different dates between 2022 and 2025, about whether money COSOL collects and pays out under that structure is a royalty or something else. It is not a rights transaction.
- Territory
- Liberia
- Announced
- 2025-07-22
- Primary document
- Trade press
- Sources
- DN News Liberia, "COSOL Distributes Welfare Benefits to Right Holders ahead of Liberia's 178th Independence Day Celebration," published 24 July 2025. THE TURNING-POINT RECORD this deal turns on: LIPO Director-General Garmai Koboi told the 22 July 2025 disbursement event at COSOL's Monrovia offices, "Let me be clear to you guys, today's event is not about Royalties Distribution but Welfare disbursement," and separately described getting betting companies to pay for music played during radio promotional slots as still-unrealised work ("to ensure that your music played by betting companies during the promotional hours on radio is paid for before playing"). Fetched and read in full. · FrontPageAfrica, "Copyright Society of Liberia Celebrates 4th Anniversary & Continue Welfare Distribution to its members (Artists)," published 9 October 2024, reporting the 4 October 2024 event. THE FIRST "NOT ROYALTIES" RECORD. Quotes LIPO Director-General Garmai Koboi: "The welfare package (Checks) given to members of the creativity industry is not 'royalties'." Fetched and read in full. · FrontPageAfrica, "MTN Liberia Music Awards May Not Hold," published 9 November 2022. THE ENFORCEMENT RECORD. Reports COSOL Executive Director Atty. Prince E. Decker's letter warning the Liberia Music Awards organisers (sponsored by Lonestar Cell MTN) that holding the ceremony without a public-performance licence would breach Section 9.6(v) of the 2016 Intellectual Property Act and Section 5.3 of the 2021 tariff regulation, and that COSOL would seek monetary penalties and an injunction. Fetched and read in full. · FrontPageAfrica, "Copyrights Society of Liberia Clocks 3," published 18 August 2023, reporting the 17 August 2023 anniversary event. THE "COSOL COLLECTS ROYALTIES" RECORD. Quotes Program Officer Jamus P. Bannah: "COSOL collects royalties for Liberian Artistes in Liberia and those outside of Liberia." Also records an unnamed disabled artist saying he registered but received no benefit, and Corporate Service Consultant James Y. Draper announcing an upcoming Memorandum of Understanding with Liberia's Ministry of Transport covering commercial-vehicle operators. Fetched and read in full. · FrontPageAfrica, "Liberia: Commerce Ministry Warns Businesses Against Unauthorized Use of Creative Content," published 6 May 2025. Reports the Ministry of Commerce and Industry's statement that it will conduct surveillance and inspections jointly with LIPO and COSOL, citing sections 9.6, 9.35 and 9.36 of the 2016 Act; names no completed enforcement action. Fetched and read in full. · Music In Africa, "Intellectual property law in Liberia," by Robin L.C. Dopoe Jr., published 17 August 2020. Background record: states the 2016 Act "does not make provision for the establishment of a collection society" and that LIPO and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry signed the 2019 administrative regulation establishing COSOL. Fetched and read in full.
Read this before citing: WHAT COULD NOT BE ESTABLISHED, STATED PLAINLY:
(1) NO COLLECTION OR DISTRIBUTION TOTAL. No source checked gives a Liberian-dollar figure for what COSOL has collected or paid out, in any year, under the 2021 tariff regulation or any other instrument.
(2) WHETHER "WELFARE" DESCRIBES ALL COSOL PAYOUTS OR ONLY THESE TWO EVENTS IS NOT STATED BY KOBOI. Director-General Garmai Koboi's quotes, in October 2024 and July 2025, were both made at specific anniversary/holiday distribution events. No source checked has her, or anyone else at LIPO or COSOL, addressing whether any COSOL payment anywhere has ever been presented to a recipient as a royalty calculated against licensed use, as opposed to a welfare disbursement. The absence of such a report in the sources checked is not proof that no such payment has ever occurred, only that none was found.
(3) BOTH ANNOUNCED REVENUE STREAMS REMAIN UNCONFIRMED. A 2023 announcement of an upcoming Memorandum of Understanding between COSOL and Liberia's Ministry of Transport (for commercial-vehicle operators playing registered music to passengers) and a 2025 statement of intent to collect from betting companies for musicians' songs played during radio promotional slots both remain, in the most recent reporting checked for each, future-tense commitments with no reported signing, start date or first payment.
(4) CURRENT MEMBERSHIP COUNT UNKNOWN. No source checked after August 2023 gives a membership figure for COSOL. The 2023 reporting itself gives none either; it records an unnamed disabled artist who said he had registered but received no benefit, with COSOL's Program Officer deferring the question.
(5) LEADERSHIP TITLES VARY BY SOURCE AND DATE. Atty. Prince E. Decker is named COSOL's Executive Director in November 2022 reporting. James Y. Draper is described as a "Corporate Service Consultant" in August 2023 reporting and as COSOL's Executive Director in July 2025 reporting. This record does not resolve whether these reflect a leadership change, a title correction, or inconsistent reporting; it treats each figure as correctly attributed to the date of the report naming them.
(6) WHAT COSOL ACTUALLY DID WITH THE MTN LIBERIA MUSIC AWARDS THREAT IS UNKNOWN. No source checked after the November 2022 warning letter reports whether the Liberia Music Awards obtained a licence, whether COSOL filed suit, or whether any penalty was paid.
(7) NO ROYALTY-SPECIFIC ANNUAL REPORT OR PUBLIC FILING FOUND. COSOL has no standalone website (confirmed independently by this site's directory desk as of September 2026); its only public channel is Facebook. This record relies entirely on third-party Liberian press coverage, COSOL's own quoted officers at public events, and the statutory text, for COSOL's activity.
(8) NO RIGHTS CHANGED HANDS. This record documents a statutory collecting society's own officials describing its payouts as welfare rather than royalties, set against the same society's 2022 invocation of royalty law against a third party. No master recording, composition or publishing right is owned, assigned, licensed, administered or distributed differently as a result of anything recorded here.
