25/01/2026
When I first saw the news about Bimbo Ademoye's film having a copyright claim on YouTube, I thought it was one of those industry mistakes many people have made before.
I assumed it was similar to what happened last year with several trending films, so I dismissed it as one of those things.
This is one of the biggest mistakes people in our industry make.
They spend millions of naira producing a film and then treat post production carelessly.
They leave everything at the mercy of the editor.
Some of these editors are not well grounded in copyright management.
They think it is just music and a few seconds will not matter.
But they forget that even 20 or 30 seconds can amount to a whole lot of copyright infringement.
Now we are seeing how YouTube and many digital platforms actually work.
If you use even a small part of someone’s music, the system can detect it.
This is especially true when the music has been distributed across digital platforms.
Once a song is uploaded through digital distributors, it is registered under Content ID.
Content ID is an automated copyright detection system used by platforms like YouTube.
It scans content across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms.
If it finds a match, it flags the content automatically.
The copyright owner then chooses what happens next.
They can decide to share revenue.
They can decide to take all the revenue.
They can also decide to block monetisation completely.
Once a claim is active, YouTube applies it immediately.
In terms of revenue, YouTube does not calculate how long the song was used.
So it does not split revenue based on duration.
If a 2 hour movie uses 30 seconds of a song, the entire revenue can be redirected to the person who holds the content ID.
The only way around it is to remove the song completely from the movie.
Now, back to what happened to Bimbo.
From my investigation, she actually got it right.
She paid for the song properly.
Ugoccie is the artist who made the song.
She produced and played the song exclusively for the movie.
That is why the entire song was not published across her channels because it could trigger copyright claims.
But this is also where I fault Bimbo Ademoye's team.
They did not get it right!
The song should have been officially published across digital platforms.
It should have been distributed properly with Content ID enabled.
After that, Bimbo’s YouTube channel should have been whitelisted.
Whitelisting means telling YouTube and Content ID systems that a specific channel is authorised to use a particular song.
When a channel is whitelisted, Content ID does not flag or claim the video on that channel.
This allows the video to earn revenue normally without interference.
With this setup, the movie would be earning on Bimbo’s channel without any issues.
At the same time, the song would still be protected everywhere else.
If any other person uploads the song on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, or any other platform, Content ID would detect it.
Any revenue from those uploads would be redirected to the rightful owner.
In this case, the revenue would still come to Bimbo.
This approach protects the film and the soundtrack at the same time.
It also prevents Ole buruku and Ekperimacious people like Emmanuel Davies (Lagos Sound) from claiming ownership through loopholes.
It is a cleaner and smarter way to handle exclusive movie soundtracks.
This is the level of copyright planning our industry needs to embrace.
So how did Emmanuel Davies get to Bimbo?
Here is my theory, and it may not be entirely true.
I also feel someone behind the scenes may be involved.
It could be someone from the production team or someone with access to the original track.
So what most likely happened is that a snippet of the song was posted online or Emmanuel Davies went to YouTube and cropped a section of the song from the movie.
The snippet was probably about 30 to 40 seconds long.
He or she then went into a studio and extended the song to more than a minute.
That version was uploaded to a digital distributor.
The distributor then issued the song to Content ID.
Content ID began to scan the internet.
When it detected the song in Bimbo’s movie, it flagged it.
The settings chosen by Emmanuel Davies were applied automatically.
This resulted in the movie being demonetised.
There is also the possibility that all revenue from the movie could be redirected to the claimant.
Bimbo now has a few options, and none of them is ideal.
The first option is to take down the movie, remove the song, re edit, and re upload it.
This option means losing all the revenue the movie has already made.
The second option is to go through the official distribution company managing the song.
This includes writing formally to the rights managers and submitting proof.
This process is very slow but clean.
The third option is to encourage fans to report the fake song across all platforms.
This can sometimes trigger investigations and takedowns.
I hope we all learn from this situation.
I also hope it is resolved properly.
As a filmmaker, I know what it means to work so hard on a film.
I know how painful it is to have everything taken from you.
No one deserves that.
May Bimbo succeed.
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