Emmanuel Okolo, has filed a N120m copyright infringement suit against Innocent Idibia and his wife, Annie. He also sued one Anthonio Anifite before Justice Mohammed Idris of a Federal High Court in Lagos, for making use of some photographs he took at their traditional wedding in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State in 2013 without duly attributing the works to him or acknowledging him contrary to an alleged agreement. He claimed that the defendants wrote ‘2faceonline.com’ across 148 out of the 355 photographs he took at the wedding and uploaded them on 2face’s official website, thereby denying him credit and referral opportunities. He claimed that days after the wedding, Annie called him, requesting copies of the wedding photographs and that upon sending them to her, Annie complained about his company’s watermark reflecting on them. Annie later sent Anifite to negotiate with him on the terms that the photographs should be released without watermarks. Okolo claimed to have then released 355 photographs to Anifite free of charge on the agreement that whenever and wherever they were used, the copyright would be credited to his company. He, however, claimed that they breached the terms of the signed agreement and went ahead to write ‘2faceonline.com’ across 148 of the photographs that they uploaded. Okolo, who described himself as “a certified film maker from the prestigious London Film Academy” and a holder of a Masters of Arts degree from Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries, South Wales, UK, claimed to have suffered general and exemplary damages for which he is seeking N120m compensation from 2face, Annie and Anifite. However, the defendants have not only urged Justice Idris to dismiss Okolo’s suit, but they’ve also filed a counter-claim wherein they are demanding N150m damages from him and his studio. They claimed Okolo crashed into the venue of their wedding uninvited, took pictures and circulated them for commercial gains without their permission. Culled
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