Nigerian actress, Stephanie Okereke
Nigerian actress, Stephanie Okereke might lose a fortune soon after being dragged to court for copyright infringement.
Nollywood actress, Stephanie Okereke, has been slammed with a N100m (about $318,000) lawsuit by an author identified as Daniella Madudu for alleged copyright infringement of her book titled: “Behind Her Veil.”
In the law suit, Madudu claimed that major parts of her book were lifted and used without any form of acknowledgement to her in Stephanie Okereke’s movie – “Dry”
According to a DailyPost report, the author alleged that she gave the manuscripts of the book to one of her friends, Joy Ndidi, who later became Stephanie’s Personal Assistant, to edit; only for her to see major excerpts of her book revealed in Stephanie Okereke Linus’ movie, Dry.
But the actress in a statement maintained that her movie had been registered with the National Copyright Commission since 2012, while the book was officially published in 2014.
The actress also stated that the said book has never been registered with the NCC till date. She further said that her movie ‘DRY ‘was shot in a bid to lend her voice to the child not bride campaign.
However, the actress admitted receiving a letter from one Rafiu Bello acting on behalf of Daniella Madudu on May 19, accusing her of appropriation of an ‘original literary work’ that was allegedly stolen from her by Joy Ndidi.
Okereke Linus said that among many other things, the letter demanded that she credits Madudu with ownership of her work, pay the sum of N60,000,000 (about $190,000) and royalties, or face a ‘campaign of calumny.’
