“COPYRIGHT CLARITY: KONSHENS’ VICTORY EXPOSES MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT COPYRIGHT LAW IN UGANDA”

Jameican artiste Konshens has won the copyright case against Telecommunications  Company in Uganda and Court has ordered the company to pay a total of 670 Million Uganda Shillings in compensation.

This case was filed in 2015 a time when Konshens’ songs had gained popularity in Uganda and it is said that his songs were used by the Telecommunication company as caller tunes. The fact that Konshens’ music were copyrighted, and the fact that he comes from a country where these laws are respected, Konshens filed a case against the company the case came through in his favor.

The songs in suit included Jazz Version, Simple Songs, Jamaican Dance, No repeat, Stop Sign Gyal a Bubble and So Mi Tan. Konshens claimed he was the author and composer of the songs and because of that he had exclusive rights to his work.

Facts state that the Company offered these songs to customers at a fee of UGX 600 and Konshens further claims that the company refused to account from the proceeds obtained from this arrangement.

According to the Copyright Infringement for Academic Authorship in Uganda, Section 46, Copyright infringement applies to any use of copyrighted work without the permission of the author unless it falls into a legal exception or is otherwise excused.

The fact that Konshens has been able to win his copyright case in Uganda, this simply means that the Copy right law exists and is active in Uganda as long as one goes through the right channels to argue out their case.

This therefore nullifies claims made by different artistes in Uganda that the Government has not established a Copy Right Law as a reason or excuse to gain political relevance in the music industry. This is so because If Konshens has been able to get justice and is t be compensated for this glitches, then Ugandan artistes to have a right to demand for legal justice against companies that infringe on their rights.

Famous Intellectual Property Lawyer Roy Mucunguzi said in an interview on Plugged D said that this is an awakening for people in the creative industry to fight for their rights, just like Konshens has done however before they go to court and sue, they have to be very certain and have evidence of ownership of their work.

“Most artistes don’t own the music they sing. Their songs were written by different people, produced by their record labels and the fact that they are signed under record labels, their contracts with their record labels have aspects that do not allow them to claim rights to the music they produce.” He explained.

The writers, composers of artistes in Uganda are the ones that license telecommunication companies since they are the ones that have all rights to the music they give to artistes. This also reveals a loophole in the claims artistes make in media about the Government and the Copy Right Law.

There is no artiste or music industry body that should ever claim Copy right as an achievement in their term of service because the Copy Right Law that protects the artiste and their work has existed since 2006.